


In the Isle of Shadow

by ameraleigh



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Apocalypse, F/M, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Sexual References, Strong Language, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25107370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameraleigh/pseuds/ameraleigh
Summary: Three years after the world ended in a series of earthquakes, storms and floods, after finding safety in the city of Cayden, Jensen, Jared and Misha are living a comfortable life with their families.But complacency can be a dangerous thing and what started out as a normal evening, soon turned into anything but.With their world crumbling around them once again, with loved ones lost and their home destroyed, they must run for their lives as they search for a new place to call home, a true safe haven where they can raise their children to not live in fear.Just when Jensen thinks they have finally settled into their new way of life, a second chance presents itself and now he has a choice to make.If you could change the past, would you? Even if you knew it could threaten the future, would you still take the opportunity?
Relationships: Jared Padalecki/Adrianne Palicki, Jensen Ackles/Misha Collins
Kudos: 10





	1. The Coldness is Hungry, Like a Loaded Gun

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to For the Heirs to Come, Be Brave  
> [For the Heirs to Come, Be Brave](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19768657/chapters/46796413)
> 
> Part of SPN/J2 Big Bang 2020, thanks to wendy for doing what she does. 
> 
> Thanks to my beta, Kirsty for all of her help again this year. 
> 
> And last but not least, thanks to my amazing artist, [amberdreams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104457) who created some gorgeous pieces to accompany the story.

  
**In the Isle of Shadow**

Chapter One  
The Coldness is Hungry, Like a Loaded Gun

  
Jensen's arm twitched sharply and his eyelids fluttered but he didn't wake. 

He knew that what was happening was just a nightmare, he thought that over time though, it would fade, that he would eventually confuse the timing of things and it would all become a blur but every little detail was still so vivid. 

His arm twitched again as he relived the memory of that first day.

He had been at the airport waiting for his flight home when seemingly out of nowhere, he was surrounded by water. 

It rose higher and higher until he could taste the putrid water and it filled his nostrils, he began to choke on it and it all felt so real that he woke with a start and began to cough violently. 

When the pain of the memories subsided, he sucked in a sharp breath and then slowly turned his head, Misha and the boys were still asleep and he was relieved that they hadn't been woken by his nightmares. 

Giving himself a few more minutes to come out of the fog, he eventually got dressed, mindful to make as little noise as possible. 

After pulling on his boots, he crept toward the door where he unzipped the flap and stepped out into the cold morning breeze. 

He could hear voices floating across the air and as he glanced around the camp, he saw a small group who were gathered near the fire, their arms wrapped tightly around themselves in a desperate bid to keep the chill at bay. 

Unaware of the time, all he knew was that it was still incredibly early, the sun hadn't yet peaked over the mountain range they were camped near. 

He zipped up his jacket as a deep chill crept down his spine, it was so cold that he could feel it in his bones and sucking in a sharp, almost painful breath, he leaned down and closed the tent. 

As he did so, he could see that the three of them were still asleep, their sleeping bags were tucked tightly under their chins. 

Turning toward the fire, he felt a moment of relief, the flames danced and twisted in the breeze. 

Whoever had been in charge of the fire that morning, had done a damn good job of keeping it going. 

Taking a seat on an old log, he glanced over at the man he had sat down next to. 

"Jesus Mark, you look like hell."

Mark drew in a deep breath as he cocked an eyebrow at him. "Gee, you think so. Turns out that putting a tent up on a pile of rocks doesn't induce a ton of sleep."

Jensen gave his head a slight shake as he bit back a smile. "Well, maybe next time, don't pick the spot with all the rocks."

Mark glared at him and Jensen couldn't keep the smile from pulling at the corners of his mouth. 

"You know, I could easily blame it on you."

Jensen sighed heavily as he scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah well, you wouldn't be the first and I doubt that you will be the last."

Mark glanced around at the others who were sitting around the fire, they looked back at him but there was no anger or animosity in their expressions. 

"Well, I was mostly joking but what the hell are you talking about?" Mark responded. "It's not like what happened was your fault. No one could have predicted what was coming."

Jensen glanced at him for a fleeting moment before he had to look away. "No, but it was me who urged everyone to move on, to stop searching."

Mark reached over and placed his hand on Jensen's shoulder. "No one gave up Jensen, that isn't what happened."

Jensen looked at him as a ripple of sadness washed over him. "No, then what would you call it."

  
Misha was woken by the sound of voices outside of the tent, it took a moment for the fog to clear but he quickly realized that it was Jensen who was talking. 

He could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation but there was an undeniable sadness in his tone that broke his heart a little and he wished that there was something that he could do to help ease that pain. 

  
Mark picked up a small stick at his feet and tossed it into the flames. He truly felt for his friend, knew the pain that he was suffering. 

"I would call it a damn tragedy, what happened that day. We spent the time we were given searching through the rubble before we had no choice but to leave."

Jensen lifted his hands to his face and wiped at his tired eyes. "Logically, I hear what you're saying but the guilt that I feel, I can't shake that and I'm not sure that I ever will."

Jensen reached into his pocket and produced the small notebook that he always carried with him and he placed it onto his lap. 

Mark watched him as he opened it and picked up the pen and started scribbling something on one of the pages. 

“Are you really writing everything down?”

Jensen finished and stuffed the notebook back into his pocket before answering. 

“Yeah, I feel like I have to. I can tell the boys about what happened but I think that if they can read it for themselves, it makes it a little more real and not just some story that Dad's telling them."

"Honestly," Mark replied. "We're still in the damn middle of it all and it feels like a story to me. But, it's a good idea, keeping notes, making sure to keep a record of what's going on. How many of those books have you gone through?"

Jensen pressed his hand against his pocket. “A few now, this one's new, ran out of pages in the last one.”

  
Misha glanced at the backpack tucked under the blankets and he reached over, pulling it toward him. 

It was already partially unzipped and he reached inside, grabbing one of the notebooks. 

It had been well used and as he flipped it open to the first page, it turned out that this was the first one that Jensen had begun writing in and as he began to read, he felt guilty for snooping. 

_My Boys;_

_I feel like this is something that I should have started a long time ago because so much has happened over the past few years that I feel like I'm going to forget some of it, that I'll accidentally leave out some important detail that you'll need to know in the future to protect yourselves._

_The world that you live in, it wasn't always like this. This new world came into being on August 18th, 2000._

_That day for me started out as ordinary as any other, I was at the airport waiting for my flight home but it quickly became clear that after the events occurred, nothing would ever be the same._

_The world was shaken to its very core, fires, storms, and earthquakes were always common occurrences but not all at once and we couldn't cope with it._

_Cities were flooded, homes were left as nothing more than rubble and the very ground beneath us changed in ways we could never have seen coming._

_So many people were lost that day and for a time I thought that I had lost everyone that I care about, your Dad, your Uncle Jared, my brother and sister, and your Grandma and Grandpa but I was lucky enough to find them because they were as determined as I was to survive._

_So, together we set out to find a new home and a new way of life. Along the way, we met people who would become family but we also lost people we cared about very much._

_We traveled the country in search of a safe place, eventually finding a settlement called Cayden._

_It was here that we began to rebuild, where hope for a safe future suddenly felt like a real possibility and for a time it was._

_Wyatt, you came to us a few months later, you arrived in Cayden with a small group of survivors but you had lost your parents, and knowing that you needed a new family, we happily took you in and we have loved you ever since._

_Cole, you became a part of our family a year later and even now, you're barely a year old and I truly hope that by the time you're old enough to understand what has happened, it will be a memory for us and a story for you._

_Our lives in Cayden, for a time, were beautiful, we were happy and we were safe but then just like before, it all changed again._

_Your Dad, myself and Uncle Jared was outside that night, we never in our wildest dreams could have imagined what would follow, that something so strange, so not of this world, could be real, but it was._

_And we were forced to leave our safety in search of something that we are now convinced, no longer exists._

  
Misha dropped the notebook into his lap and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

He had seen Jensen writing in these books over the years but he hadn't ever actually read any of it until now, nor had ever asked to read them. 

Now that he had, it just made him sad for all the things that they had lost, all of the people that they had had to say goodbye to. 

  
He could hear Jensen's voice carrying across the wind and he shoved the notebook back into the bag.

When he looked over at the boys, he saw Cole was awake and wriggling around but Wyatt was still out to it, so he focused on getting Cole dressed. 

Just as he was putting Cole's shoes on, Wyatt woke up and fought with the sleeping bag for a moment as he tried to crawl out of it. 

It took a little more wrangling to get Wyatt dressed and once he had zipped up his jacket, the kid took off toward the door. 

Misha chuckled to himself as the nearly four-year-old fumbled with the tent's zip but he somehow managed to get it open and he quickly disappeared outside. 

He had to quickly pick up Cole as well as Wyatt's shoes and follow after him before he could get too far. 

Jensen was a little surprised when Wyatt suddenly appeared at his side, he was babbling incoherently and Jensen heard Misha calling out to him but the toddler was clearly ignoring him. 

"Wyatt," Jensen said. "You need to listen to Daddy when he talks to you, you can't just run off like that."

Wyatt threw himself at Jensen and giggled loudly as Jensen scooped him up into his arms. “You don't even have your shoes on buddy.”

Misha approached the fire and he dropped Wyatt's shoes in front of Jensen, who picked them up and attempted to put them on, Wyatt fought him a little but then finally relented. 

When he finished, Wyatt climbed off his lap and walked over to Mark who had to grab him as he tripped on a small rock and almost tumbled backward. 

Wyatt laughed loudly as Mark scooped him up. "Damn kid."

"Has anyone spoken to Cassandra this morning?"

"Not yet," Mark replied. "Was gonna head over there soon."

After sitting by the fire for a little while longer, they finally go to their feet and Jensen reached out to take Wyatt from Mark but he shook his head and instead held his coffee cup out for him to take. 

Jensen took the cup and followed him as they headed toward the tent. 

"Did you get much sleep?" Misha asked him. 

"Some," Jensen replied with a sad smile. "More than the previous night, so I guess that's something."

As they approached the tent, Jensen saw Jared and Adrienne were already there and Chris was trailing a few feet behind. 

"Hey." Chris called out as he walked over to them. 

Jensen motioned at Chris to stop but he didn't say anything until the others had gone inside. 

"How is he doing?"

Chris shrugged his shoulders and exhaled sharply, it was so damn cold that you could see his breath. "I don't know, he has his good moments and his really not so good ones."

Jensen felt another wave of guilt, this was different guilt to the one he had told Mark about, this one was specific to Jared. 

"Yeah, I know and I know that I should check on more often but..."

"He knows," Chris told him as he rested his hand on his shoulder. "Don't stress about that, he knows you care and besides, I don't think that anything or anyone is going to be able to get through to him right now, hell, even Sherri can't get him to say much."

Jensen nodded sadly and then finally followed the others into the tent. 

He noticed Cassandra standing near the small table that held the coffee pots and mugs, she was struggling to pull her jacket on. 

He flinched at her obvious pain and once again, a wave of guilt washed over him. 

She had suffered a series of very serious injuries the day Cayden fell, she had a large, deep gash to her right shoulder that had required almost 40 stitches and had rendered the entire arm useless for almost three weeks, she was only now gaining back some mobility. 

At least the cuts above her eye were healing nicely. 

After she finally got her jacket on and had it buttoned up, she turned in their direction and Jensen noticed that she was unsteady on her feet and he instinctively stepped toward her. 

He moved toward her and casually grabbed her good arm and once she regained her footing, she sucked in a sharp breath and glanced up at him. 

She thanked him with a small smile and he took a step back. 

"Have any of the scouts returned yet?"

Jensen looked to Mark who shook his head. 

"No, but that's to be expected," he told her. "I'm hoping that we'll have some news by midday."

"Okay," she said. "I know that this may be a little bit of putting the cart before the horse but I think that we should prepare to leave, if they come back with bad news, I don't want to take any chances, we shouldn't stay here for any longer than we need to."

"I agree," Mark added. "I would rather be safe than sorry."

Jensen slumped his shoulders at the thought, he knew that staying in one place wasn't feasible but the thought of having to pack up and move again, it just added another level of stress that he could really do without. 

He finally joined the others and watched for a moment as Misha tried to get Cole to eat his oatmeal but he appeared to be more interested in trying to pick the food off of Misha's plate. 

Jensen sat down next to Misha and took over feeding duties so that he could finally eat. 

"So," Misha said between bites of food. "What's the plan here, are we really just going to keep going, hope that we can outrun it or do we just keep going until we eventually run out of land."

Jensen narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what else we're supposed to do."

"I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, does it?"

Jensen studied him for a moment, a rush of sadness washing over him because the subtext behind that comment... they all knew that it didn't matter where they went or how far they went, they weren't likely to escape what was coming. 

************************

It was well into the afternoon when Jensen was alerted to voices echoing from the edge of the camp behind where the tent was set up. 

After a quick check on the boys, he walked toward the voices and quickly found Cassandra and Mark who were talking to Jeff and David who had just returned from the scouting mission. 

"What's going on?" Jensen asked as he approached. 

Jeff turned toward him and Jensen could see the defeated look in his eyes and he felt his heart sink. 

"It's that bad, huh?"

Jeff drew in a deep breath and then after what felt like an eternity, he nodded. 

"If anyone wanted to go west, my best guess is that you'd have to go as far south as Oklahoma or maybe even Texas to get around that damn mess. The last town that we passed through before stopping here, it's gone."

Jensen stared back at him with wide eyes and he felt a deep chill creep down his spine. That town was two, maybe three days east of where they currently were.

If they hesitated and stayed put for too long, they could even up in serious trouble. 

A silence befell the group as they contemplated the news and what their next steps might be. 

"We've been moving directly west, right?" Jensen said. 

Cassandra nodded in response. 

"Okay, so then we need to be moving in a south, south-west direction in instead."

"Sure," Jeff answered. "And go where exactly?"

"I don't know, but I think that instead of going west or east or wherever; we need to go south, that way we can avoid the San Andreas, kind of, and we won't have to make an unnecessary, risky trip."

"I agree with that," Mark added. "South is a good option."

"I agree also," Cassandra said. "We have to go somewhere."

Once it was agreed upon that they would move south, they finished packing up the camp, and a few hours later, they headed out. 

************************

It was almost dusk when they had finally left the campsite and now that the darkness was quickly devouring them, they found traveling incredibly hard. 

The two jeeps were leading them but even they were struggling to make it safely through the trees and undergrowth. 

It didn't help that they also carried about 80% of their belongings. The food and water, tents, some of their clothing and other supplies were loaded into the back, the only available space was for the driver. 

Tied onto the rooves, were four folding tables and a dozen camping chairs that they had acquired in the town that was now a pile of rubble. 

Something else they had also acquired, were two child carriers, it made traveling with Wyatt and Cole a hell of a lot easier, not perfect, but easier. 

However the terrain was proving to be an uncooperative bitch, the undergrowth was a tangled mess and a lot of trees had been knocked over by the vicious winds. 

It took them almost four hours, or at least that was the best guestimate of time before they finally cleared the woods that had surrounded the mountains. 

They now found themselves in an open field which would make walking a lot easier but with no protection from the winds, it didn't take long before they needed to stop to add more layers of clothing. 

As Jensen added a layer of thick woolen sweaters to the boys, followed by heavy winter coats, he feared that it still wasn't enough so he put on another pair of pants and more socks onto each of them before he had to stop, any more layers and they wouldn't fit into the carriers. 

It was so brutally cold that a few members of the group even produced their blankets to drape around themselves. 

Once everyone was ready, they headed out into the plains. 

The grass reached waist level on a lot of them but the ground was sturdy and easy to walk on. 

They continued to walk for a few more hours until they eventually had to stop and take a break. 

Moving against the wind was becoming painful and the brittle cold made their lungs ache. 

The children were exhausted and if they were all being honest, the adults were struggling as well. 

Despite the high winds, they decided to try and build a fire, using one of the jeeps as a windbreak. 

They had packed a small amount of wood with their supplies and Jared and David set about getting a fire going, but they were struggling to get it lit and didn't succeed until Mark approached them and poured a small amount of vodka onto it, the alcohol caught the tiny flame and sent it roaring into the sky.

Jared threw himself back to avoid being burnt by the flames. 

"Sorry." Mark replied with a sheepish grin. 

Once it was going, they huddled around it as much as they could and they tried to come up with a plan. 

"Well, I suggest that we take the jeep and check things out," Mark suggested. "We can't stay out there like this and there has to be something, somewhere."

"I'll go too." Jeff offered as he got to his feet. 

They didn't really need a response from anyone, they all knew that it could be dangerous to stay out in this weather so they headed toward the jeep and the others watched until it quickly disappeared from view. 

Jensen felt someone move beside him and when he looked over, he saw Jared sitting down.

He decided to take the opportunity to take to him, their conversations had been seriously lacking as of late. 

"Aside from the obvious," Jensen said. "Are you doing okay?"

Jared sighed heavily as he pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around himself. 

"I always knew that there was a chance that we'd be doing this again, camping out in the middle of nowhere, having to deal with all of this bullshit, we had a pretty good three years there and it just sucks."

"Yeah," Jensen replied. "I remember those days fondly. I tried not to take it for granted but I think that maybe we allowed ourselves to become complacent, maybe we could have done better, been better prepared."

Jared was avoiding making eye contact and Jensen assumed he had pushed a little too hard. 

"We can only learn from those mistakes and the next time, we'll do better."

Jared finally looked at him again and then he glanced at the boys who were asleep, snuggled up in their blankets between Jensen and Misha. 

"Do you really believe that, Jen? How have you not gone insane with worry over those two boys, worrying about how you can protect them?"

Jensen narrowed his eyes. "Who said that I haven't gone insane? I think about their safety, every minute of every day, what can I do, how can I make it through each day?"

Jensen reached out and placed his hand on Jared's arm but neither one said anything else as they stared into the fire. 

About 30 minutes or so had passed and the winds showed no signs of dissipating, it was also becoming harder and harder to maintain the fire and Jensen knew that if Mark and Jeff didn't return soon... well he didn't really want to give that outcome too much thought. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to wish away the pain he was feeling, the bitter cold that seeped into his bones and made every inch of him ache. 

Thankfully, not long after, the sound of the jeep filled his ears and when he looked up, he saw it slowing to a stop about 20 feet away. 

The doors swung open and Mark and Jeff appeared, Mark adjusted his jacket as he walked toward the fire, the wind whipping viciously around them. 

"What did you find?" Jensen asked. "Is there anything out there?"

"Actually,” Mark replied. “We found a town, about five or so miles south of here.”

“Fuck,” Jensen muttered under his breath. “In normal conditions, that might not be so bad, but right now, in this weather...”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “So, we were thinking about that, we’ll unload the jeeps and fit in as many as we can, if we have to do a couple of trips, then that’s what we’ll do.”

"I'm not going to argue with that plan," Jared added. "I want out of this fucking cold."

They made quick work of unloading, one of the jeeps had all nine of the children plus Donna and Lisa with Mark driving. 

The second jeep, driven by Jeff managed to fit 12 adults, it was far from comfortable, but given the conditions outside, they were more than happy to suck it up for the short drive to the town. 

Jensen, Misha, Jared, Adrienne, Chris, David, and 11 others waited, huddled together around the fire. 

When the wind suddenly changed direction, Jensen watched as the flames flickered and danced wildly, he was very nervous that it would go out. 

Roughly 20 minutes passed before the two jeeps returned, David and Misha made sure the fire was put out completely before they loaded into the vehicles. 

“We’ll drop you guys off and then come back our stuff.” Mark told them as he started up the engine. 

He pushed his foot to the floor and got them to the town as quickly as he could. 

The trip took less than 15 minutes as Mark pushed the vehicle to its limits and when they approached a mall, Jensen’s eyes lit up. 

He was even more excited when Mark pulled the car into the parking lot. 

"There were a bunch of places to choose from but the mall seemed like the best choice," Mark told them. "Hopefully we'll be able to replenish our supplies."

"Damn, if this place still has running water, I could die happy."

Mark parked near the main entrance, the glass had been blown out long ago and there were debris and rubbish scattered everywhere. 

As they piled out of the car, Jensen stopped himself from going inside. "You can't go back on your own."

"They're not," Chris said. "I'll go with them."

Jensen nodded back but he didn't feel right about staying behind, he had never been one to stand by and watch others do the hard work.

He could feel Misha's hand on his shoulder, urging him to go inside. 

"They'll be okay, back before you know it."

"Yeah, I know," Jensen said as he turned toward the door, a small smile playing across his lips. "Another mall."

Misha raised a brow at him. "Yeah?"

"Makes me think about that day, when I found you again," Jensen told him. "We were so exhausted, there were so many times when we wanted to give up but I knew we had to keep going, that eventually, we would... I had to believe that I'd find you again."

"I never doubted you."

They finally made their way inside and he felt a rush of excitement when they walked past rows of stores that looked untouched and his eyes widened when they approached a grocery store, the doors had been pulled down but clearly, someone had made a decent attempt at getting inside because even in the dark, they could see the dents in the pull-down doors. 

Jensen glanced over at Jared who had this determined look in his eyes and he couldn't help but smile. 

"Yeah, I'm with Jared on this one," Jensen said. "I want to open those doors."

They stepped up to the doors and tried to pry them open but they didn't have any more luck than whoever had tried to break in earlier. 

But there was so much rubbish lying around, that they figured they would be able to find something to help. 

Jared walked over to a large pile of rubbish and managed to find what had possibly once been a mop handle, it would probably just snap on the first attempt. 

They kept searching and eventually came up with a spanner that David found near the front entrance. 

It took a little effort but they were finally able to break the locks and it took all of them to lift the door up enough for them to get inside.

They made their way inside and they were barely a few steps in when they had to cover their mouths. An overwhelming stench filled their nostrils.

"What the fuck is that smell?"

"My guess," Jensen said as he tried not to gag. "The freezers, meat cabinets. "It's fucking gross." Adrienne said.

Jensen gave his shoulders a shrug. "Yeah well, best you can do is try not to breathe too deep."

They split up and Jensen saw Jared turn down an aisle and following him, he found him standing in front of a shelf full of cookies.

"Well, that stockpile should keep you going for a few months."

He watched as Jared picked up a package of cookies and tore it open, a few scattered to the floor and Jensen gave his head a shake.

He couldn't stand the thought of food being wasted but he also wasn't exactly comfortable eating off the floor.

However, Jared apparently didn't have a problem with it and he leaned down and scooped up the cookies, shoving them into his mouth.

"Dude, tell me that you did not just do that."

They both turned toward the end of the aisle and saw Adrienne standing there, her arms loaded up with bags of Doritos.

Jared shrugged his shoulders as he stuffed another cookie into his mouth. 

A loud screechy, rattling sound echoed around them and a moment later, David appeared with a shopping cart and Adrienne dumped the bags into it.

"We can fill this up, for now, give everyone something to eat that isn't mushed from a can, we can always come back for more."

They all nodded in agreement and quickly made their way around the store before heading off to find the others.

They still didn't actually know where the others were but as they moved further into the mall, they began to hear voices and as they rounded the corner, a department store came into view.

Jensen picked up his pace when he saw people sitting on the rows of sofas through the windows.

As they got closer, they could see the others lounging around, there were a bunch of sofas, armchairs, and tables and against the far right wall, was a row of beds.

He sighed with relief when he saw his mother, she was sitting on a sofa, the boys were wrapped up in their blankets, were fast asleep next to her.

Jensen looked over his shoulder as David pushed the cart of food toward them and everyone instantly got to their feet.

One guy, Damon, reached toward the car but then hesitated before searching their faces to make sure it was okay and David nodded.

"Go for it, there is plenty more where this came from."

As the food was handed out, Jensen searched for Cassandra but he couldn't see her anywhere.

"There's a staff room in the back," Donna told him as she sat back down on the sofa. "I think she's having some issues again and she doesn't want anyone to worry or to know just how bad it still is."

"Okay."

He adjusted the strap of his backpack as he moved around the sofa and headed toward the back of the building.

The staff room door wasn't closed all the way and he could see a flickering light through the gap.

He pushed the door open and stepped into the room, Cassandra was lying on the sofa, her good arm was draped across her face while her injured arm was propped up on a pillow.

"Hey," Jensen said as he placed his pack onto the table. "Found some medications in the market."

She slowly sat up, a movement that clearly pained her and Jensen wished that there was more that he could do.

He produced a package of pills and bottled water and handed them over to her.

"It's just generic painkillers but hopefully it will help take the edge off," he told her. "And there are plenty more as well, you should see it, it was the most beautiful sight."

She picked up the packets and popped out four pills before opening the water.

"I imagine so," she replied. "And thank you."

"How come no one went in before?"

"They tried but we figured that it's been there all this time, it can wait until everyone arrived."

Jensen nodded back. "Well, it's open now, fair warning though, the freezer and meat cabinets have created an uh... a delightful smell."

Cassandra let out a small chuckle and Jensen smiled at seeing her smile.

"I'm going to let you get some rest, don't worry about anything out there, we'll take care of it."

Cassandra nodded as he placed a bag of Doritos, a box of crackers and a tin of tuna fish as well as another couple of bottles of water onto the table.

Jensen joined the rest of the group, they had set up a bunch of chairs and beanbags in a circle.

Most were eating, while others were simply enjoying the comfortable furniture.

Jensen sat down on the arm of the sofa next to his mother and watched his son's sleep.

"Has a watch already been set up?" He asked his mother.

She looked up at him and nodded. "Yes, it's already been arranged, four-hour shifts, they're all covered so you don't have to worry about it."

She studied him for a moment and she could almost see the disappointment on his face about not being included in the watch.

"Jensen," she said. "Please don't go and talk yourself into a shift, take the opportunity to get as much sleep as you can."

Jensen smirked back at her and she gave him that look only a mother could.

"Okay fine, I hear you."

Jensen glanced over to the bed where Misha was lying down, he could see a single mattress on the floor next to the bed.

The boys were asleep on the sofa and he knew that they wouldn't really care either way, at their age, they could sleep in any position, anywhere.

He leaned down and scooped up Cole, he murmured quietly but didn't wake up as Jensen carried him over to the bed and placed him down onto the mattress.

When he turned around, he saw Donna carrying Wyatt over and once he was lying down, Jensen picked up the winter blanket from the end of the bed and draped it across them. 

"You should try and get some sleep too," he told her. "I know your back must be bothering you still."

She nodded slightly in agreement. "It hasn't been too bad actually, and now that we have access to painkillers, it will be a lot better and oh yes, I am very much looking forward to sleeping in a real bed."

He smiled back at her and then produced a package of the painkillers from his pack and handed them to her.

"Do you still have water?"

"I do," she replied. "Oh, I forgot to mention that there is a public bathroom right over there."

She pointed to a set of doors on the other side of the room.

"Running water?"

"There is," she told him with a smile. "Only cold though and unfortunately we didn't find any showers in there."

"Well, hopefully somewhere nearby is a gym, we've had luck with those in the past."

"We can check that out in the morning, along with finding some new clothes and much more sensible shoes."

He glanced down at her black dress shoes, while they fit her well enough, they weren't exactly the best in camping footwear.

She reached out and squeezed his arm before turning around and heading toward the bed she was sharing with Mac who was already asleep.

Jensen sat down on the end of the bed and was untying his boots when he heard footsteps echoing throughout the store.

When he looked up, he saw Jeff, Mark, and Chris had finally returned.

He was about to get up and go and talk to them, but David beat him to it, he watched them talk for a few minutes and then the three of them grabbed something to eat and picked a place to sleep for the night.

He figured that he would leave them to get some rest, he could always talk to them in the morning.

He finally lay down and rolled onto his side to look at Misha, he had his eyes closed but he knew that he wasn't asleep yet.

Jensen reached out his hand, his fingers brushing against Misha's arm and he felt him twitch ever so slightly.

“I know you're not asleep.” He whispered.

Misha smiled softly, the light from the lamps illuminated his face enough for Jensen to see him.

“I probably will be able to sleep at some point,” Misha told him. “But right now, it's just nice to be somewhere warm, somewhere I can allow myself to relax, even if it is only temporary.”

"I hear that," Jensen replied. "It's nice."

"But it is only temporary," Misha added.

"I know," Jensen said as he rested his hand on Misha's shoulder. "So, we just enjoy it while we can."

He shuffled forward a little, their faces were now only inches apart.

“We'll be okay here, at least for a while.”

He pressed his lips to his in a brief but comforting kiss and then he closed his eyes.

He felt himself drifting off to sleep and it was the first time in far too long since he had felt safe enough to fall asleep without worrying.

He woke up a few hours later when he heard Cole fussing and he knew it would be easier to put him into the bed with them.

By now, everyone was asleep and he didn't want them waking up because of Cole's fussing.

Not long after the toddler went back to sleep and Jensen quickly followed suit.

Jensen opened his eyes and blinked hard several times until his eyes adjusted, it took a moment to remember where he was and as he glanced around the store, he let out a deep breath of relief.

But the moment didn't last long because of the reason why he woke up.

Screaming.

He could hear a pained scream and sitting upright, he glanced around the room again as his fellow survivors woke to the sound and as his eyes darted back and forth, they finally landed on a familiar face.

His little sister, she was sitting up on the bed she was sharing with their mother, her arms wrapped around herself as their mom tried to calm her down.

But her screams echoed in his ears and he squeezed his eyes shut, he knew why she was screaming, why she was so scared and he drew in a deep breath to try and calm his nerves as the memories of that awful day washed over him.

The worst moments of his life came rushing back all in one fell swoop and he felt nauseous and he exhaled sharply as he felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck.

As the sound of her pain continued to echo around them, he was dragged down into the memories, reliving it all over again.


	2. My Spirit is Sinking, Like a Ship's Been Wrecked

**In the Isle of Shadow**  
Chapter Two  
My Spirit is Sinking, Like a Ship's Been Wrecked

_**Five Weeks Earlier:** _

Jensen pulled the covers up and tucked them under Wyatt's chin.

The little boy giggled as Jensen ruffled his hair and then he leaned over, kissing him on the forehead. 

“Now, do you agree that you will stay in bed until you can see the sun peeking in under the curtains?”

Wyatt giggled again and when Jensen comically raised an eyebrow at him, Wyatt nodded and then continued giggling. 

“Okay,” Jensen said. “I will see you in the morning.”

Wyatt nodded and then closed his eyes. 

Jensen stopped in the doorway and turned back to face his son. 

Wyatt was staring back at him, his adorable trademark grin on full display and Jensen couldn't help the smile that pulled at the corner of his mouth. 

“Okay cheeky monkey,” Jensen said. “Go to sleep now.”

He turned out the gas lamp that sat on the dresser near the door and then pulled the door mostly shut, he was careful to leave it open a few inches. 

Wyatt was still getting used to sleeping alone in his room and Jensen had promised that he would always leave the door open a little. 

With a shake of his head, he turned around and headed down the hall. As he passed his bedroom, he saw the lamps were illuminated but the room was empty. 

So, he made his way downstairs and as he got closer, he could hear Misha in the living room making incoherent baby noises at Cole. 

As he walked into the room, he saw Misha sitting on the floor, Cole was laying on a blanket in front of him, his limbs waving around wildly as Misha tickled him. 

Cole was laughing and it was a sound that Jensen would never tire of, he enjoyed nothing more than listening to his son's laughter. 

Everything they had suffered through over the past few years had led them to this; to be parents to those two sweet boys. 

Despite the still unknown future, he was happy, he was loved and it couldn't get much better than that.

Misha glanced up as Jensen sat down on the edge of the coffee table which he had pushed to one side to make room for their game. 

“Wyatt go down alright?”

“Well, for the most part, and for now at least. That boy has been around us way too long."

Misha smiled back at him. “Well, it's genius if you ask me, if he takes the blanket off the bed, he thinks that counts as being in bed.”

  
Several minutes passed and Jensen gave his head a shake as he heard the distinct pitter-patter of tiny feet on the wooden floor behind him. 

Misha could see Wyatt standing there, his blanket half draped over him and half dragging on the floor. 

Jensen very slowly turned around and saw him standing there and Wyatt began giggling loudly. 

He couldn't resist any longer and he held his arms out to the little boy. 

Wyatt rushed forward, almost tripping over his blanket and Jensen leaned down and scooped him up. 

“What happened to our deal kiddo?” he asked. “You are supposed to be in bed.”

Wyatt lifted his blanket up and Jensen gave his head a shake. 

“That doesn't count.” Jensen said with a soft chuckle.

“Jensen!"

“Jensen, can you hear me?”

He could hear his name being called and when he glanced up, he was completely confused by his surroundings. 

He couldn't make heads or tails of his location, suddenly he wasn't in his house with his family, there was no laughter, there was no happiness. 

Then he could feel hands grabbing at him, pulling him to his feet and he blinked hard as raindrops trickled down his forehead. 

“What's going on?”

“Jensen, we need to get inside. We can't stay out here.”

He glanced up and into the face of his best friend, Jared, he was drenched from head to toe. 

“What happened?” Jensen asked as he wiped the water from his eyes.

Jared pointed up at the sky and Jensen slowly turned around, his eyes widening when he saw the strange lights and it all came rushing back to him. 

They had been out at the worksite and were headed back once it had begun to rain, it was then that Jared had noticed something strange, lights and more worrisome than that was the outline of an object in the sky. 

Drawing in a long, deep breath, he focused his attention on Jared who was still standing before him. 

“Jensen,” Jared urged. “We have to go.”

He glanced to his right and looked into the equally concerned face of Misha and he nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

The three of them took off running and soon found themselves outside of the gates of Cayden. 

They flagged down one of the security guards who quickly opened the gate for them. 

For a moment, Jensen hesitated, he wasn't sure if they should say anything to the guard or if they should keep the news to themselves until they had spoken to Cassandra.

Misha reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him forward.

A few minutes later, they were standing on the steps of city hall, being night, most people were in their homes but there were still a few people milling about, as far as they could tell though, no one else had noticed the lights. 

Inside the building was well lit with lamps and they found Cassandra in her office. 

She was quick to her feet when they burst in, it was clear from their expressions that something was wrong. 

“What happened?” She questioned them. 

Jensen glanced over at Jared and Misha who both still looked as confused and terrified as he was. 

“Honestly,” Jared replied. “We're not entirely sure. We were uh... we were on our way back from the worksite. There's this... there are lights in the sky.”

Cassandra stared back at him and he couldn't quite tell if she was shocked by his announcement of if she simply didn't believe him.

“What on earth are you talking about?” she finally replied. “What do you mean by lights?”

No one said anything, instead, Jared pointed toward the door. 

Cassandra nodded back and followed them out the door but then she suddenly stopped.

“What are you doing?” Misha asked. 

She glanced over her shoulder. “Perhaps we should go to the roof until we know what's going on, I would rather not cause a panic.”

They took the stairs to the roof and when she opened the door, she was hit by a chilling rain. 

It took several minutes but they finally spotted the lights and they walked over to the edge of the roof.

The lights had moved from their original location, now, they were north of the city and Jensen felt his blood run cold. 

There still wasn't nearly enough information to go on and they still couldn't see the source of the lights. 

Cassandra turned to look at them, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of what was happening and she had no idea what to say to them or anyone else for that matter. 

After what felt like an eternity, she drew in a deep breath. “I think we should double the patrol overnight.”

“Okay,” Jensen said. “But when they ask why, what are you going to tell them?”

She drew in a deep breath again and nodded. “I'll pull the most trusted guards and I guess I should tell them the truth."

“Is there anything that we can do?” Misha asked. 

“I could potentially ask a lot from you,” she said. “But right now, I'm not sure what that might be.”

Cassandra knew that other residents were likely to notice the lights and she knew that chaos could erupt quickly so they needed to come up with a plan. 

“Okay,” she said after several minutes of silence. “I think that the three of you should go home, see your families and try to get a few hours of rest and I'll convene the council and arrange the extra security. Once that's done, we'll monitor for any changes and if there are any, you will be the first to know.”

“I don't know if we...” Jensen began to say but Cassandra held her hand up to stop him. 

“There isn't anything that you can do right now, there isn't really anything that anyone can do until we have more information, so let me try and get that info and then we'll go from there.”

“Okay,” Misha said. “The moment anything changes...”

“Again, you'll be the first to know.”

Once they had reached his parent's house, Jensen found them sitting on the sofa. 

Clearly one of them had just made a fresh pot of coffee, the smell of it wafted through the house and it made Jensen's stomach growl. 

When Donna saw them standing there, drenched from the rain, she got to her feet and disappeared out of the room, returning a few mintues later with some clean towels. 

As Jensen dried off, he contemplated telling them the truth but when he looked over at Misha, saw the concern in his eyes, he decided to hold off until they had a little more information to give. 

“How are the boys?” Jensen asked as he kicked off his boots. “Did they go down alright?”

“They're fine, Cole went to sleep no problem but Wyatt got up a few times.”

Once they were a little drier, Jensen and Misha headed into the kitchen to get some coffee. 

Jensen poured out two cups and handed one over to him. 

“I wish that I could...” Misha began. “I wish I could do something, I know realistically that we have to wait but not knowing if we should be prepared for the worst, it's driving me a little crazy.”

“It feels wrong somehow, to just be standing around like this, it's not in me to watch and wait, I should be doing something.”

Misha exhaled sharply as he glanced toward the ceiling, of course, he couldn't see the boys but knowing that they were upstairs and not knowing what was going on outside, his mind raced with a million questions and worries. 

What if this mystery object was something sinister, how was he supposed to protect his family? 

He placed the mug down onto the counter, lifted his hands to his face, and wiped at his eyes. 

His hair was still wet and his clothes begin to feel horribly uncomfortable, he desperately wanted to change out of them. 

“Yeah,” Jensen said, noticing his discomfort. “I think that there are some of our clothes in the boys' room.”

Misha nodded back as he finished off his coffee before he followed Jensen upstairs. 

Careful not to wake the kids, he found a couple of changes of clothes in the closet and made his way into the bathroom across the hall. 

Misha was already drying off again with a towel and happily accepted the dry, clean clothes from Jensen. 

Once they had changed, they stayed in the bathroom for several minutes but neither one said anything. 

Misha sat down on the edge of the bath while Jensen leaned against the sink, his arms folded over his chest. 

For the longest time, he just stared at the flame in the lamp, watched as it flickered, casting small shadows against the wall. 

“I'm trying to come up with a plausible explanation for all of this,” Misha said. “And I have nothing.”

“Well,” Jensen replied. “At least the first thought wasn't that we're being invaded.”

Misha glanced up at him but he quickly saw that there was no amusement in Jensen's eyes. 

“It was thought though,” Misha said. “But again, I was trying to come up with something plausible.”

“But why the hell not,” Jensen replied. “Might make about as much sense as anything else at this point.”

Misha gave his head a disbelieving shake. “Come on now, there is a pretty big difference between storms, earthquakes, and the like and being invaded by aliens.”

“Is there though?” Jensen replied. “All of those things individually, storms, earthquakes, and whatever, they might just be random but now the earth is basically fucked, so why not throw some aliens into the mix.”

Misha sighed heavily as he contemplated what Jensen was saying.

Jensen scrunched up his nose and then gave his head a shake. “Well, what else could it be? The EMP took everything out so whatever that thing is, it can't be a plane or drone or basically anything else for that matter.”

Misha sighed again. “There will be an explanation for it, a logical explanation.”

Jensen stared back at him, sadness filling his eyes. “Yeah, and what if there isn't?”

Misha fell silent, that was a concern for him, what if there wasn't actually a logical explanation for what was happening. 

A few minutes later, Jensen walked over to the door and stepped out into the hall, Misha followed after him and then almost knocked into him when Jensen paused mid-step. 

“What are you doing?” He cried out as he stepped around him. 

Misha watched him for a moment, he appeared to be straining to hear something. 

“What is it?”

“You can't hear that?” Jensen replied. 

Misha shook his head. “Hear what? I don't hear anything.”

“I swear to god,” Jensen said. “It's a faint buzzing sound, almost electrical.”

Misha cocked an eyebrow at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Jensen lifted his hands to his face and wiped at his eyes. “I don't know what it is, I can't tell where it's coming from.”

“I can't hear it.”

"Seriously?" Jensen asked with a raised brow. "How can you not hear it?

He walked over to the window at the end of the hall and looked out over the backyard. He couldn't really see much but just knowing that that thing was out there, sent a chill down his spine. 

“Where are the packs?”

Misha cocked an eyebrow at him. “Really, you think it's going to come down to that?”

“I just want to be prepared for anything,” Jensen told him. “And now with the boys, if we ever do have to leave here, traveling with them is going to be extremely difficult.”

Misha squeezed his eyes shut, the very thought of having to leave Cayden and travel with the boys was too much to even think about.

“We need to make sure that there are enough supplies and that we can easily get to them.”

"They're packed and ready to go, you know that because you check them at least once a week," Misha exhaled sharply and then nodded back at him. “Yeah, I know you're right but it's hard to even consider the possibility.”

“I don't want to think about it either but we have to.”

After checking the boys again, Jensen went downstairs to find that his mother had gone to bed, his dad was in the kitchen doing the last bit of tidying up.

“Did either of you have anything to eat?”

“Not since lunch,” he told him. “I am kind of hungry but... I know there isn't much.”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Alan replied. “We still have plenty of bread left, I'll make the two of you some sandwiches.”

“Dad, you don't have to do that.”

Alan waved him off and began fixing some food for them. 

Misha came back into the kitchen and poured himself some more coffee. “It's still pretty bad out there, we should just stay here tonight.”

Alan finished making the sandwiches and handed them each a plate.

Jensen took his to the table and sat down across from Misha. 

As Jensen ate, he could feel his father's eyes on him but he didn't look at him because he knew that he would have questions and right now, Jensen was trying not to think about the night's events. 

“How is the site looking?” Alan asked. 

Jensen swallowed hard and glanced over at Misha who remained silent. 

“It's uh... yeah, it's looking good,” Jensen finally said. “Taking longer to clear than we thought but still...”

Alan folded his arms over his chest and stared at his son, he had no idea of what was going on, but he knew that there was something that Jensen wasn't saying. 

When Jensen didn't say anything else, Alan looked over at Misha. 

“Okay,” Alan said. “One of you needs to tell me what's going on.”

Jensen finished eating and pushed the plate away before he turned in the chair to face his father. 

“Jensen.” Misha said in a warning tone. 

He gave his head a shake and went against Misha's warning, he knew that he could trust his father and trust him not to freak out. 

“Okay,” Jensen began. “We were uh... we were on our way back from the site and Jared noticed something.”

Alan narrowed his eyes and when Jensen failed to keep speaking, he motioned at him to keep going. 

“There were lights,” Jensen continued. “He saw lights in the sky but we couldn't tell from what and whatever it was, we think that it's still out there.”

Alan glanced at Misha briefly who nodded ever so slightly.

“I don't know what to...”

“Say, or think or do,” Jensen finished for him. “Yeah, that's basically our reaction as well.”

Alan moved away from the counter and sat down next to his son. 

“Are you certain that they were lights and not some sort of reflection or...”

“We're certain,” Jensen replied. “And as soon as we got back, we went to city hall to tell Cassandra.”

“What did she have to say about it?”

That she would double security overnight and that she would also let us know if or when something happens. 

“Okay,” he replied. “I'm assuming that you have some sort of theory.”

Jensen studied his father for several minutes; he was a little taken aback by how calm he seemed to be.

“Honestly,” Misha replied. “We have no idea what it actually is.”

“Well,” Alan replied. “Let’s think logically about this, what did the lights look like, how many were there, what was their distance from the city?” 

Jensen narrowed his eyes and quickly glanced at Misha before focusing back on his father. 

“There were five, maybe six lights that we could see, they were orange or maybe red,” Jensen explained. “But we have no idea of their size or the distance because we have no idea what the source was.” 

“Okay,” Alan said as he placed his hands on the tabletop. “A flying object with a light source appears despite nothing with a circuit board working years.”

“Yeah, Dad, this is great and all but it really doesn’t help solve the problem.” 

“So, in other words,” Misha said. “Whatever it is, has no electronic components.”

Jensen stared back at him and then rolled his eyes.

“So, what does that leave?” Alan replied. 

Jensen glanced over at Misha. “Well, he has one idea but saying it out loud...” 

“I see,” Alan replied with a small chuckle. “Well, what did Cassandra say about that?” 

"We didn't actually share that theory with her."

“Perhaps that's wise.” Alan said. 

Jensen ran his hands through his hair, he couldn't stand the thought of being helpless, he wanted answers and he wanted to make a plan.

Alan studied his son for a moment. “Look, I understand that you're worried, that you want to make plans to protect your children, I feel the exact same way but you also need to get some rest, you will be doing no good for anyone if you're too exhausted.”

“I know, I'll try and get some sleep.”

************************

The following morning, Jensen was up before the sun, he was eager to get to the town hall and talk to Cassandra. 

Misha had agreed to stay with the boys. 

On his way to the town hall, he met up with Jared and Mark and after moving through the streets quickly, they soon found themselves on the steps of the building. 

They were barely at the doors when Cassandra appeared. 

“So, what's going on, did anything happen?” Jensen questioned her. 

Cassandra gave her head a shake. “Not that we could tell, I had security checking in every 30 minutes but they never reported seeing anything, especially not in the sky.”

Jensen wiped at his eyes, he was so exhausted but he knew that it wasn't entirely because of a lack of sleep. 

“Okay, so now we do a grid search, I can head out right now.”

Cassandra sighed heavily and then nodded. She knew that there was no way that Jensen was going to sit and wait and while she felt the same way, she had the entire town to think of. 

“Okay,” she finally said. “Take the green jeep and just make sure that you mark each grid on the map.”

Jensen nodded back at her and then led the way toward the side of the building where the jeep was parked. 

They had opted to head north and had arrived at the bottom of the hill. They still hadn't seen anything out of place and Jensen was beginning to doubt that they would find anything at all. 

The hills weren't particularly high, they would be able to walk to the top in less than half an hour if they kept a good pace, so that's what they decided to do. 

As the sun began to rise, the hotter it became and by the time they reached the top, sweat was pouring down their foreheads. 

Jared was the first to get to the 'lookout', and after giving himself a moment to catch his breath, his eyes widened in bewilderment at what he saw. 

Jensen came up behind him and saw his expression before he saw what it was that Jared was looking at. 

“What is wrong with you?”

Jared swallowed hard around the lump that had formed in this throat and pointed to a spot in front of him...

Jensen hesitated at first, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer but when he finally did look, his heart dropped to his stomach. 

“Fuck,” he cried out. “There is no damn way that I'm seeing what I'm seeing.”

Jared just shook his head and remained silent. 

Jensen glanced over at him, he could see his own fear, his own disbelief staring back at him and that somehow made him feel even worse. 

“This is wrong,” Jared finally said. “Whatever that is, it's not real. It's not what it looks like.”

Jensen reached over and placed his hand on Jared's shoulder. 

“Wholly hell.” Mark cried out as he stepped up beside them. 

The three of them stood there in shock for several minutes before they were rocked by a thunderous echo. It was so loud that they had to cover their ears, it so loud that Jensen was worried that the sound would burst their eardrums. 

“Guys, we can't stay here,” Mark told them. “We need to leave, now.”

They practically ran down the hill toward the jeep and quickly climbed in. 

Jensen was behind the wheel this time and he started up the engine and pushed it as hard as it would go. 

He couldn't get out of there fast enough, but no matter how fast or how far they drove, he knew that it would never be enough. 

"What the fuck is going on?" Jared cried out from the passenger seat. 

“I have no idea,” Mark replied. “But it is because as you said so yourself, we all saw it."

Jared lifted his hands to his face and muttered incoherently, Jensen couldn't entirely blame him, what they had just witnessed, it was incomprehensible.

The range was a good 15 to 20-minute drive from the northernmost point of Cayden, it was part of the reason why they had settled where they did. 

“What the hell are we going to do?”

Jensen gave his head a shake. “I have no idea, I mean I usually have an opinion on everything, but this one, this has got me fucking stumped.”

As he pushed the engine to its limits, what happened next, was almost as if it were unfolding in slow motion. 

A dark shadow grew over them and the air seemed to drop several degrees. 

They watched in horror as a column of flames hit the ground in front of them, the dirt exploded in a cloud of debris and as they got closer, they realized just how large the crater was. 

They knew that they wouldn't make it back in time to warn the residents as more columns slammed into the ground. 

The flames consumed everything in their path and as they got closer to Cayden, the harder it became to see. 

Thick black smoke began to fill the air and Jensen had to roll up the window. 

Even with the windows rolled up, they could still smell the smoke, still hear the destruction, the ground being torn apart, and the buildings that were now being affected. 

"Jensen."

"I know," he replied. "I'm going as fast as I can."

They finally reached the main gate but ditched the jeep and ran through the much easier to open the smaller gate. 

The columns of fire were already more than halfway across town and the buildings that were being hit were left as nothing more than rubble and Jensen felt his heart sink.

There were people rushing about everywhere as they tried to find their loved ones and get to safety. 

By the time they made it to their street, there was already so much destruction and Jensen feared the worst. 

He knew that Misha was with the boys at his parent's place. 

He glanced over at Jared as he ran across the street, the door swung open and Adrienne and Christian ran out. 

Jensen didn't wait, he ran up to the front door and pushed it open, he could hear voices inside and he felt his heart skip a beat. 

Misha appeared in the doorway, Cole was in his arms and Wyatt beside him. “Jensen, what the hell is going on?”

“I uh... I don't even know where to start, we need to get out of here, right now.”

Misha nodded back without saying anything. 

“Where are my folks, Mac, Josh?”

Misha shrugged his shoulders. “I think that your parents went with Josh to the Med Center and Mac is probably with Megan.”

Jensen brought his hands to his face and wiped at his eyes. “We have to find them.”

“We will.”

“I will,” Jensen replied. “I want you to take the boys and get out of here.”

Misha stared back at him and then shook his head. “We'll all leave together.”

“No, you're going to leave now, get as far away from here as possible, I mean it Misha, grab the packs and get the boys out, take anyone you can find on the way.”

Misha didn't move, so Jensen went inside and returned a few minutes later with the packs, he took Cole from him so that Misha could put the pack on and then gave Cole back to him. He had to carry the other pack with his free hand. 

“Go,” Jensen told him. “The jeep is parked at the gate, take it, and get them out of here. We'll meet up with you when we can.”

Misha vigorously shook his head. “No, I don't want to go without you.”

“He's right,” Jared chimed in. “You need to get out of here now, we'll find the others and then find you.”

Misha swallowed hard. “Where are we supposed to go?”

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath. “West, as far west as you can, stick to the tree line and we'll find you.”

“I'll go with them,” Adrienne announced. “We'll take survivors as we go.”

Jensen nodded back at her and then pulled Misha into a hug, he kissed Cole on the forehead and then leaned down to look at Wyatt. “You're going to go with Daddy okay, I need you to be good and help him look after Cole, can you do that for me?”

Wyatt nodded back and Jensen smiled softly, he was fairly certain that Wyatt had no idea what he was talking about. 

Adrienne shared a quick kiss with Jared before she took the other pack from Misha and put it on, then she picked up Wyatt and walked back to the street. 

Misha hesitated a moment but then joined her. 

“Jensen,” he called out. “Please be careful.”

Jensen felt sick sending them away but he also knew that Misha would protect them. 

He watched for a moment as Adrienne lead the way, he could see her calling out to their neighbors who were more than happy to leave. A few of them were carrying bags as they hurried toward the main gates of the city. 

Several minutes later, they began walking to the center of town but their path was interrupted by an explosion, a column of fire hit the side of a building, glass, wood, and debris were flung through the air and Christian was almost hit by a chunk of concrete. 

Jared had managed to grab him just in time and after the initial shock, they kept moving. 

They reached the med center first but there was no sign of their parents or siblings so they headed toward town hall. 

As they approached, they saw Jeff, Mark and David appear from one of the buildings just as it was hit with a column of fire. 

They were all knocked off their feet as the building began to crumble and as Jensen hit the ground hard, he could feel burning embers on his leg. 

He swatted at his jeans and was quickly able to extinguish the flames but he knew that the burn was going to be serious. 

He looked up when he heard screaming, he saw Cassandra lying on the ground, her jacket was on fire and she had a large, painful looking gash across her forehead, blood trickled down her face and he was worried for a moment that the injury was to her eye. 

Sucking in a sharp breath, he struggled to pull himself to his feet and he managed to reach her at the same time as Jeff. 

They did their best to put out the flames but that wasn't her only injury, it was clear that her collar bone was broken and there was a very deep, very large cut across her shoulder. 

“Where is the other jeep?” Mark called out. “We have to get them out of here.”

“I think it's in the back of town hall.” David called out as he helped a woman get to her feet. 

Mark disappeared behind the buildings and Jensen focused on trying to find his family. 

If they weren't at the med center and they hadn't appeared out of the town hall building, he wasn't sure where they might be and it was becoming increasingly difficult to see as thick black smoke began to surround them. 

More people began to move past them as they headed toward the main entrance to get out of the city. 

Jensen could see a lot of injuries and a lot of blood covering the faces of the people moving past them.

If they didn't find their families soon, he was terrified that they never would. 

When Mark came back with the jeep, they loaded Cassandra into the passenger seat and crammed as many people as they could into the back before he took off. 

The columns of fire seemed to be moving further away and Jensen prayed that they would move far enough away that they would at least have a small chance of making it out of this. 

It took about five or six hours to get every able-bodied person out and it had only been about 30 minutes prior to that, that the columns of fire finally ceased. 

Jensen and Jared hadn't found their parents in that time but their sisters had shown up a few hours earlier, they had cuts and bruises but nothing that was too serious and they were both adamant that they stay and help dig through the rubble. 

Thick smoke was making it difficult to see and they didn't have enough water to put out the buildings, so searching was no easy feat. 

As they were digging through a large pile of debris, Jensen noticed that Jared was flinching every time he picked something up. 

Finally, Jensen walked over to him and reached out, grabbing him around the wrist. 

"What are you doing?" Jared cried out. 

"What are you doing?" Jensen replied as he pulled off Jared's glove. 

He had clearly injured himself by the way he reacted to the glove being removed. 

"Jesus Jared," Jensen scolded him. "This isn't just a scratch, that's a fucking serious burn."

Jared tried to pull his hand away but Jensen held onto him. 

"You need to get it wrapped, you don't want it to get infected."

"I'm fine," Jared retorted. "It looks worse than it is, it's fine."

"Clearly it's not," Jensen said. "Get it taken care of, now."

Jared refused and Jensen had to physically guide him over to Lisa who grabbed her first aid bag. 

"Damn it, Jared," she said. "You should have come to me sooner."

Jared fussed a little as she cleaned and bandage his hand, he just wanted to get back to searching but not after Lisa had finished up, Jeff announced that they were going to stop for the night. 

Trying to search in the pitch black was going to be next to impossible, there was still a lot of smoke and they hadn't taken much of a break since they started searching. 

There was a good deal of arguing going but finally the more stubborn of the group agreed to stop, for a while so that they could get some rest. 

Mark had come back earlier with the jeep and as many people piled in as they could, and he slowly lead the way toward the camp that had been set up to the west. 

The temporary camp along the tree line about 15 minutes west. 

They already had fires going and they were even able to grab a decent amount of supplies on the way out so they would at least be able to eat for the next few days. 

There was also a fresh water source nearby, it was the same one they had been using for the past few years, it was about 20 feet beyond the tree line, during daylight, they would be able to see it from the camp. 

So far, they had managed to find about 11 people in the rubble so there were currently 72 at the camp. 

Which would have been alright if there were only a few hundred residents but Cayden was home to several thousand. 

Jensen knew that the death toll was going to be high but he hadn't expected it to be quite that bad. 

He found Misha and the boys near one of the fires, the boys were wrapped up in a sleeping bag beside him. 

When Misha saw him, he got to his feet and pulled Jensen into a long embrace. 

"No luck?" Misha asked and then he shook his head and how stupid it sounded. 

Jensen gave his head a shake. "No, not yet but I'm not giving up."

Misha nodded back and then reached toward the pack and grabbed a towel. 

"You should get cleaned up," he told him. "I don't want the boys to see you like this."

"It's okay, it's just a bit of dirt and soot."

Misha narrowed his eyes at him and then shook his head. "Jen, you have dried blood all over your face."

Jensen lifted his hand to his face and scratched at a spot on his cheek before he checked the rest of his face. 

He flinched when he felt a small welt above his eyebrow. "Shit, I didn't even feel that, does it look bad?"

Misha studied the wound for a moment. "I'm not really sure, it's kind of hard to tell."

Jensen took the towel and turned toward the trees. "Okay, I'll go clean up."

He moved toward the trees and the water source was quickly in view and when he reached it, he knelt down and dipped the towel into the water. 

He cleaned up, wiping at his face, careful not to disturb the cut above his eyebrow but the towel quickly became filthy, to the point that it became useless. 

A few minutes later, he made his way back to the others. 

As he took it all in, he could see the extent of the injuries that people were suffering, in comparison, his was just a scratch. 

He sat down beside Misha and glanced across the fire toward Adrienne, Jared was partially laying down, his head resting in her lap and she was wiping at his face, the small towel she was using, was covered in dirt and soot. 

He could also clearly see the tears staining his cheeks and he felt awful and then he felt even worse when he saw Megan settling down beside him. 

“Jensen.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a sharp breath when he heard his sister's voice. He finally looked up at her and smiled sadly. 

“What if we...” she began to say as tears rolled down her cheek. “What if we can't find them?”

She sat down and Jensen wrapped an arm around her. “We'll keep searching until we do.”

She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “I'm really trying to stay positive Jen, but I can't help it, I can't help but fear that this time...”

“I know,” he replied. “I can't help it either but I promise you Mac, we'll keep searching until we find them or until we can't search anymore.”

The following morning, almost everyone was up before the sun had even risen, they were keen to get back to town to begin searching again.

The ones with slightly more serious injuries staying behind at the camp, including Mac and Megan who reluctantly agreed to stay behind to watch the kids. 

It took about 20 minutes until they reached the city and by the time they walked through the gates, the sun was up. 

In the daylight, the destruction was even worse than they had feared, there was so much debris everywhere that the town looked completely different. 

Entire streets had been wiped out and they knew that there was no chance that anyone would have survived the damage.

So many buildings were now nothing more than the steps leading to the front door and as they walked past a particular row of houses, Jensen had to turn away when he saw the remains of the occupants, half-buried under the rubble.

He lifted his hand to his mouth as a wave of nausea washed over him.

"You okay?" Jared asked.

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head.

He didn't give any further explanation and Jared didn't ask any more questions. 

The first few hours of searching, they managed to find three people who had somehow made it into the small basement that was under what used to be an old butcher shop.

They were dehydrated and had minor scrapes and bruises but were otherwise okay. 

Erin, one of the young woman who was helping them search, agreed to take the injured to the camp while everyone else stayed to keep looking.

They moved through the buildings quickly and it was late into the afternoon when they reached the row of buildings that was closest to the wall.

There was another group of people searching the other side of town but a large part was blocked off from a building collapse. From what they could see, there wasn't exactly much left beyond that anyway, the chances of finding anyone alive, was slim to none.

They were all so exhausted, physically, and emotionally and they weren't sure how much longer they would be able to keep this up.

David and Chris were working on a particularly difficult section of the building when they suddenly stopped and Chris called out for everyone to shut up.

It took a few minutes of intense listening, but finally he was able to hear it again, it was faint but it was there, the sound of voices, calling out for help.

"There's a large chunk of concrete blocking the way," David told Jensen. " I have no idea how we're going to move it, even with a half a dozen people, it's too heavy."

"Jensen!"

Jensen spun on his heel when he heard his name.

He raced over to the pile of debris where a couple of the guys were pulling away pieces of brick and wood.

"What? What is it?"

"Jensen, it's your Mom," Misha told him. "She's down there."

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath and threw himself forward, pulling and ripping at the debris.

A few minutes later, there was enough of a gap that he could physically reach out and touch her, she grabbed his hand and assured him that she was okay, but he knew that she wouldn't truly be alright until she was out of there.

"Mom," Jensen asked. "Is Dad with you, Josh?"

"No honey, they're not," she replied. "I'm sorry."

Jensen dropped his head. “Damn it, what about Sherri, Gerald?”

“I'm here,” Sherri called out and Jensen exhaled sharply. “I don't know where the others are.”

A moment later, Jared appeared, the relief was written all over his face but it didn't last long when he was told that his father and brother weren't there.

With no way to move the largest piece of concrete, it took a few more hours to make a hole large enough for them to get out, it was only enough room for one at a time but as each of the nine people were brought up, it gave Jensen a sense of hope that they would eventually find the others.

When Lisa had cleared Donna for any serious injuries, Jensen walked her over to a cleared area and gave her water and some food.

“I was worried,” Jensen told her. “When we couldn't find you, I didn't know what to think.”

Donna took his hand and gave him a sad but reassuring smile. “I know but I'm okay, I'll be okay and just knowing that you and Mackenzie are alright, that helps.”

“Yeah, but what about Dad and Josh? We still don't know where they are.

”Donna exhaled sharply and glanced around at the destruction. “Sherri and I went into the admin building, your father, brother, and the others, they were going to head over to the workshop.”

Jensen lifted his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, the workshop was on the other side of town, right in the middle of the area that had suffered the most damage.

He felt sick to his stomach.

"Mom," he said. "If they were uh... if they were at the shop before all of this happened, then we... we tried but that it's gone, it's all gone."

Donna squeezed her eyes shut as a tear rolled down her cheek. "You're sure?"

Jensen hesitated for a moment and then nodded. "We tried, we really did but the whole... there's nothing left."

She pulled her son into a hug as silent tears fell.

Moments later, Jensen leaned back and looked at her. "Mom, what are we going to do?"

They continued to search well into the night and they had only managed to find two more survivors, they had been pulled from the rubble a few hours after the first group had been found.

When it became clear that they were unlikely to find anyone else alive, they decided to call it a night and when a heavy rainfall began, they knew that it was the right thing to do, to head back to the camp.

It was a slow and painful walk as the rain-soaked through their clothes and the wind that had picked up, only further agitated their aches and pains.

When they reached the camp, they were relieved to discover that someone had managed to find several tarps and rigged up a makeshift roof to keep the rain out.

Once they had changed into clean, dry clothes, they sat down to eat and to get some much-needed rest. 

Jensen watched for a moment as his mother and sister had wrapped themselves in their coats and inched closer to the fire. 

"Jen."

He gave his head a shake and turned to look at Misha, he was holding a cup out to him. 

"Are you okay?"

Jensen took the cup but didn't say anything. 

"Jen, talk to me," Misha pleaded with him. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay.""I'm sorry," Misha replied. "I know that that's a stupid thing to ask."

"No, it's not," Jensen told him. "I'm not okay because I think that I have to accept the fact that we're not going to find anyone else alive, I'm not okay because I'm fairly certain that yesterday, my father and my brother died."


	3. Staring at the Sun, You Neglect the Moon

**In the Isle of Shadow**

Chapter Three  
Staring at the Sun, You Neglect the Moon

_**Present Day:** _

  
Jeff made his way toward the staff-room, he could see the door was partially open and a lantern was flickering in the almost nonexistent breeze. 

He knew that Cassandra was most likely asleep, she was still dealing with a lot of pain, the meds they had found, weren't working like they had hoped so she was sleeping a lot more than usual. 

He pushed open the door and stepped into the room, she was lying on the sofa, a pillow tucked under her head and a blanket was draped haphazardly across her. 

She looked almost peaceful and he felt bad for having to wake her but she hadn't eaten yet and was due for more meds. 

He called out to her but she didn't wake, so he called her name again. 

"Cassandra."

As he got closer, a panicked feeling washed over him and he hesitated from moving closer to her. 

"Cassandra," he said again. "I need you to wake up."

He finally leaned down beside her and gave her a light shake but she still wasn't responding. 

Drawing in a deep breath, he reached out and took her hand and pressed his fingers to her wrist, he really hoped that he was wrong and that she was just in a deep sleep but when he felt nothing, when he felt no pulse, he collapsed backward and brought his hand to his face. 

He knew that her injuries were severe but he didn't know that they could potentially lead to her death. 

He gave himself a few minutes before getting to his feet. 

He needed to find Lisa, he needed an actual, qualified person to confirm it. 

Making his way back out to the main area, he scanned the group for Lisa, eventually he spotted her sitting at a table with David and a couple of others. 

Approaching the table, he caught her line of sight and motioned for her to follow him. 

“What's going on?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and exhaled sharply. “It's Cassandra.”

“Okay, what about her, how is she doing?”

Jeff glanced over his shoulder toward the staff room door. “She's uh... she's gone.”

She stared back at him with wide eyes, not entirely believing what he was saying. “Are you sure?”

Jeff shrugged his shoulders. “Fairly sure but I need you to confirm it.”

Lisa sucked in a sharp breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

She followed him back to the staff-room, they tried to remain as casual as possible but she felt like everyone was staring at them. 

When they were in the room, Jeff closed the door Lisa knelt down in front of Cassandra, she hesitated for a moment before she checked her vitals. 

After a few minutes, she got to her feet and turned toward Jeff. 

“She's gone.”

Jeff lifted his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes. 

“What do you think happened?”

Lisa drew in a deep breath and glanced at Cassandra. “Honestly, there's no way to know for sure. All I can do is offer my best guess. It could have been a blood clot, but again, that's just a guess."

“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. “What the hell do we do? I know that we have to tell everyone but I don't want people to panic.”

“I get that,” she replied. “She's our... she was our leader, it's going to take a minute to deal with this.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, it is.”

They both agreed that they needed to inform everyone as soon as possible, not telling them right away, didn't feel right. 

After making the announcement, Lisa, Jeff, and Anna set about taking care of the body, they wrapped her in a sheet and moved her to the front entrance, in the morning, they would find somewhere nice and give her a proper burial.

The next morning, after a quick scouting mission, Jared, Christian and Adrienne had found a small park not too far from the mall. 

There were a small pond and a lot of trees, it was a place that she would have liked a lot and it was the perfect place to bury her. 

All the survivors gathered in the park that morning, to say their final goodbyes to the leader who had kept them together over the past few years. 

There wasn't a lot of talking, of course, there were wonderful things that could be said about her but there were no words that would change the fact that she was gone. 

“When we find a safe place, a new home,” Jensen told Misha. “I want to do something, a memorial of sorts. We never got to say a proper goodbye to them and I think about that every day.”

Misha took his hand and nodded back at him. “I know, I've thought about that a lot as well and we will, I think its a good idea.”

“But only if we find a safe place to go,” Jensen pointed out. “I think about that a lot too, what if there is nowhere left to go?”

Misha tightened his grip on Jensen's hand. “We will find somewhere to go, we always do. We won't stop looking until we find a place to raise our boys, somewhere where they don't have to grow up worrying about this.”

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath as he glanced over at Misha, he tried to force a smile but failed.

************************

It had only been a few days since Cassandra's passing, there had been a somberness over the group as they did their best to deal with her passing and their plans moving forward had been put on hold.

It was late in the evening and while everyone was mostly settled down for the night, Christian decided to take a watch and was currently up on the roof. 

It was a warm night, so his jacket was laying on the roof next to him and he was standing near the edge, staring at a spot to the north. 

A large fire had broken out in the forest the day after Cassandra's passing and it was burning quickly and brightly. 

He couldn't stop staring at it, he knew that they were safe where they were, they were far enough away from it that it wasn't an immediate threat. 

But it was large and he figured it covered several miles already and it would continue to burn until some heavy rain or a storm rolled through. 

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the door scrape open and he glanced over his shoulder and saw Jared approaching, he was carrying a plastic bag with him. 

“Brought some food, a couple of beers even.”

“Shit,” Chris replied. “Won't say no to a beer.”

Jared reached the edge of the roof and produced two bottles and handed one to Chris. 

“It's been a few days of this bone dry weather now if we don't get rain soon, I do worry that it could head in this direction.”

“Yeah, I think that Jeff is worried too, he's been talking again about searching the town for supplies.”

“Like what?”

“Vehicles.”

Chris cocked an eyebrow at him. “Seriously, it was a damn miracle that they had the jeeps in Cayden, the chances of finding more that can be used, I don't like those odds.”

“Yeah, well he still wants to try, starting in the morning.”

"Sure," Chris answered. "I guess it's worth it to try but I don't hold out hope of getting lucky enough to actually find what we need."

************************

Jensen, Misha, and Jared left the mall and headed across the parking lot. They were going to search the blocks surrounding the mall while another group was going to head north, they hoped that they would be able to find some sort of industrial area, they needed tools and materials, they needed all of the things that they had lost a few months ago. 

They reached the first intersection and while Misha and Jared began walking across the street, Jensen suddenly stopped. 

"What are you doing?" Jared called out. 

Jensen gave his head a shake and muttered something under his breath before he followed them across the street. 

"You okay, what happened back there?" Misha asked. 

"I don't know," Jensen told him. "I just felt... it's nothing, I don't feel it anymore."

Misha glanced over at Jared who looked just as concerned as he did. 

"Jen," Misha replied. "What did you feel?"

Jensen briefly glanced over his shoulder. "I don't know how to explain it, I got that chill down my spine feeling and then it was like static but it only lasted a few seconds."

Jared cocked an eyebrow at him and then motioned toward the sidewalk. "You alright now, can we keep going?"

Jensen nodded back at him and they continued walking down the street. 

They had been out searching for about 30 minutes, quickly checking out storefronts as they went when they decided to head left, they rounded the corner of one building when this time, it was Misha who stopped in his tracks. 

Jensen knocked into him and Jared almost followed suit.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Jared questioned him. 

"Not me," Jensen said. "Misha."

"You can see him too, right?" Misha asked. 

Jensen glanced up and looked to where Misha was pointing, Jensen's eyes widened in surprise when he saw a young boy standing about a block away. 

“What the fuck?” Jensen muttered. 

From where they stood, Jensen figured that he must have been about five or six years old, he was just standing there, staring back at them. 

"What do we do?" Jared asked. 

"I don't know," Misha replied as he continued to keep an eye on the boy. "Maybe wait and see he if moves toward us, I don't want to frighten him."

For several minutes they all just stood there but Misha couldn't stand there any longer. 

He began walking toward the boy while Jensen and Jared waited back. 

He was relieved when the kid began walking toward him, he didn't seem too nervous about their presence. 

"Hey there," Misha called out. "What are you doing out here on your own?"

The boy didn't say anything, he just stared back at him. 

Misha reached into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water and muesli bar and held them out to him. 

He reached out and grabbed them and when he glanced up at Misha, he had a sheepish look on his face. 

"It's okay," Misha told him. "When was the last time that you ate?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders as he but into the muesli bar.

"Where did you come from?"

He glanced over his shoulder and pointed down the street.

"Okay," Misha said. "How many people are there?"

"I don't know."

"That's okay, do you think that you can show us where you live?"

"I think so."

"That's good, can you tell me your name?"

"Jacob," he replied with a bright smile. "My sister is Neve."

"You have a sister?"

Jacob nodded back at him as he ate more of the bar. "Yep but she can't walk so good now, her leg hurts."

Misha looked over his shoulder toward Jensen and Jared and motioned for them to join him. 

"These two are my friends, Jensen and the really tall one, his name is Jared."

When Jensen and Jared approached, they waved at Jacob who smiled up at them and then he turned on his heel and began walking. 

They let Jacob lead the way and after walking for about 20 or 30 minutes, he disappeared through the doorway of an old building and led them up a dodgy looking flight of stairs. 

The smell hit them before they even entered the room and Jared had to stop and he pressed his hand over his mouth. 

"Oh my god," he cried out as the stench filled his nostrils. "How long have they been here?"

Jensen glanced at him as he scrunched up his nose to try and block out the smell. 

"I don't know if I can go in there."

Misha had already followed Jacob into the room and after sucking in several deep breaths, Jensen followed him. 

There was a mattress against the far wall and they could clearly see two bodies lying there, a thin blanket was draped across them. 

Another mattress a few feet away held the remains of another person and on an old torn sofa in the middle of the room, was a little girl, no more than 10 years old. 

Misha leaned down beside her and was talking softly, Jacob stood next to him. 

"Do you know who they are?" Jensen asked him. 

"That's Thomas and Jenny."

"And the other man?"

Jacob shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really remember his name, but he's asleep, I tried to wake him up but he keeps sleeping."

Jensen exhaled sharply and was slightly grateful that the boy didn't truly understand that the man wasn't actually sleeping. 

"How is she?" Jensen asked Misha. 

"I think her ankle is broken and she has a ton of cuts and bruises and I'm 100% certain that she's badly dehydrated."

Jensen pulled a couple of bottles of water from his pack and handed them to Misha. 

He removed the cap and helped her to sit up a little.   
"Just be careful," he told her. "Take small sips, don't drink too much at once."

She slowly nodded as she sipped on the water.

"We need to get them to Lisa," Jensen said. "Especially if there are broken bones involved."

“I agree, the sooner, the better.”

Jensen sighed heavily as he glanced around at the ones they couldn't save. “What do we do about them?”

Misha gave his head a sad shake. “There isn't anything that we can do.”

An hour later, they were back at the mall and Lisa was checking over the kids. 

Misha had been right, Neve's ankle was broken and very badly swollen and she was severely dehydrated, Jacob was a little on the thin side but otherwise he was in much better shape than his sister. 

Donna sat down beside Jensen who was sitting in a chair near the kids. “You really just found him wandering the street on his own?”

Jensen folded his arms over his chest and shrugged his shoulders. “It was the last thing we were expecting to find, but I'm damn glad that we did because...”

“Because if you hadn't had... everyone else, they were dead?”

Jensen glanced up at her and nodded. “Yeah, I mean maybe if we had gone out earlier then we might have been able to help.”

“You can't blame yourself for that Jen,” she told him. “You already do so much to help everyone around you, you have to cut yourself some slack when things don't go the way you want them to.”

Jensen sighed heavily and lowered his gaze to the floor. “Yeah well when it comes to Dad and Josh, I will never forgive myself for not being able to save them.

Everyone can say otherwise, but I know that at least some of the blame lands on my shoulders.”

Donna squeezed her eyes shut as a tear rolled down her cheek, she took a moment to mourn before she focused on her son. 

“I don't want you to feel that way, you shouldn't be carrying any guilt over what happened to them., it was a horrible, tragic accident and no blame is being laid at anyone's feet, least of all yours.”

Jensen looked up at her but avoided her line of sight. “I hear what you're saying, but again, whether I wanted it or not, people see me as a leader and failing to save them, means I failed everyone.”

“Jen,” she said as she pulled him into a hug. “You haven't failed anyone, no matter how much of a leader, how strong or determined you are, there was literally nothing that you could have done to prevent what happened that day. Please, try to let go of the guilt, don't let it eat at you until there's no going back.”

He rested his head on her shoulder as he sucked in a sharp breath. He heard her words, he knew what she was saying was logical, but his brain wouldn't allow him to just let it go, he would carry that day with him for the rest of his life. 

Once Neve and Jacob had been patched up, Misha appeared with a wheelchair that he had found at the information desk at the other end of the mall and he and

Jensen took them down to the supermarket so they could pick out anything they wanted, of course, they went straight for the candy and Misha grabbed a basket so they could fill it up.

Both the kids were a little more talkative now but they still weren't really answering any questions about their family or what they had been through. 

Finally, Neve revealed a little more about their pasts, they had been staying at a settlement in Northern New Mexico with a small group of survivors, they had decided to leave when food became so scarce that they were on the verge of starvation. 

Neve couldn't be sure but she had guessed that there could have been about 100 people living in the small town. 

“We don't know when they left,” Misha pointed out. “It could have been weeks ago, maybe even months and if anyone stayed... there might not be anyone alive.”

“I get what you're saying,” Jensen replied. “But what if there are still survivors there, I feel like we have no choice but to look for them.”

“We are pretty much heading in that direction anyway,” Jared pointed out. “What would be the harm in checking it out?”

“I agree,” Mark added. “There are so few people left that knowing there could be more out there, not looking for the, it feels wrong.”

“Okay,” Chris said. “What's the situation with the vehicle search?”

“How many of us are there again?”

“49.”

Jensen felt that sadness again before Cayden fell, there had been several thousand people living there, in the past few months, they had lost a lot more, some because of the weather, others who had succumbed to their injuries and knowing that there were less than 50 people left, it all felt so wrong.

“Shit, okay,” Jeff replied. 

“School bus.” Jensen blurted out. 

They all looked over at him, waiting for further explanation. 

“School bus.” he repeated. 

Jeff folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, we'd need two though, if we want to make sure that we take enough supplies with us. They would need to be engines that were made, I would say no later than '92.”

“What about city buses?”

Jeff gave his head a shake. “No, they would be too new, they'd have more electrical parts, it would be too difficult to convert.”

“It's going to be dark soon though, I think we need to wait until tomorrow, the earlier, the better.”

During dinner, Jensen tried to talk to Neve, to find out a little more about the town they had come from. 

It turned out that they had been in Taos, in an area to the north, it was mostly undamaged but they had exhausted all of their food options over the years since the events occurred. 

She also explained that their parents had died more than a year ago and that Jenny and Thomas had been taking care of them ever since. 

And now they were their responsibility and Jensen was determined to make sure that those two kids, survived this nightmare. 

************************

It took them almost three days before they found what they were looking for, on the outskirts of town was a high school and in the parking lot were not two but four buses. 

However three of them were fairly damaged leaving only one that was usable right now. 

“You reckon you'll be able to fix it?” Jensen asked as he walked up behind Jeff. 

“Not sure yet, the engine on this one is in pretty good shape but the axle is fucked, however the axle on that other one...” he explained. “But it's gonna be a bitch to swap them out, I don't know how long it will take, especially seeing as we have no electrical equipment to use, how the hell do we jack up a bus?”

Jensen gave his shoulders a shrug. “No idea, but I'm sure we can come up with something.”

“Wouldn't a pit work?” Jared asked as he joined them. 

Jeff gave his head a shake. “Not really no, cos the point of that is to work underneath, dunno yet how to prop it up, if we don't plan it carefully, we might not get the bus out of whatever we end up using.”

“Okay,” Jensen said. “Well again, we'll figure something out.”

It took another four days before they found an old tow truck that had enough oomph to lift the bus high enough that they were able to remove and replace the broken suspension. 

They had even found a small U-Haul trailer which had already been over-packed with food, water, clothes and other supplies. 

When Jeff was confident that the vehicles were safe and ready to use, they announced that they would be leaving first thing in the morning. 

There was a lot of restlessness in the room as everyone was just eager to get back on the move, to find a more permanent home. 

Misha had already gotten the boys to sleep and now he was laying in bed, Jensen wondered if he had already fallen asleep but then he rolled over and began talking to Chris. 

He walked across the room to check in on his Mom and sister, they were sitting on a bed, a stack of playing cards was sitting between them.

“Hey Mom,” he said as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “You should really try and get some sleep.”

She glanced up at him and rolled her eyes. “Jensen, I'm fine and I will sleep when I sleep.”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I get that but it's going to be a long day tomorrow and those bus seats are not exactly comfortable.”

“Jensen,” she repeated. “I'm fine so you can stop fussing. It's actually us that are worried about you.”

Jensen ran his hand through his hair and sighed heavily. “Yeah, I know. I've been pushing too hard and I've been doing it for days but we're not... we're not safe yet and I can't stop until then.”

She reached over and placed her hand on his arm. “We'll be okay.”

Jensen sighed heavily again and Mac shifted on the bed, knocking the cards everywhere and she wrapped her arms around her brother.

After spending a little time with his family, Jensen made his way back to Misha and the boys, Misha was still chatting to Chris. 

He sat down on the bed and took off his boots before laying down, he was so exhausted and the moment he closed his eyes, he was asleep. 

Jensen was woken early the next morning by a very active, over-excited four-year-old who was attempting to jump on his head. 

“Wyatt, take it easy kiddo.” He cried out as he rolled his son onto the bed so he could sit up.

Misha was already up and was changing Cole. 

Most of the others were already up and were packing up the last of their belongings. 

“Damn,” Jensen said as he swung his legs out of bed. “Why did you let me sleep for so long?”

“Because you needed it,” Misha replied. “Probably more so than anyone else.”

Once they were all dressed, they had breakfast and then tided up the space, Jensen didn't feel right about leaving the place in a mess, it had served them extremely well and he wanted to leave it in good condition for any other survivors who may one day find it. 

Once the sun was beating down on them, they loaded up the buses and then discussed a schedule for the drivers. 

They knew that the terrain was going to be rough and they wanted the most experienced drivers behind the wheel.

The first hour out of the city was fairly uneventful, a few obstacles here and there but nothing too serious, it wasn't until they hit the outskirts of town that things started to get a little rough. 

The roads were badly cracked and there were fallen trees and old rusted out cars scattered everywhere. 

At one point, Mark thought that they may have to find an alternate route to take because the roads became that bad. 

It was very slow going, it took them almost four hours just to travel 100 miles. 

They decided to stop at a small rest area that seemed to be in okay condition, they needed to stretch their legs and the children in particular, were getting hungry. 

At the rate that they were going, it was most likely going to take them days to arrive in Taos, a trip that normally would have taken about half a day. 

Jensen was carrying Cole while Misha and Wyatt were chasing each other around a tree, he was happy to just stand there and watch his family, it was such a normal moment that he allowed himself the time to just live in it. 

They had a small, quick picnic-style lunch and when everything was packed up again, they set back out on the road. 

There was a lot more damage the further south they traveled and it was long after the sun had set before they decided to stop for the night. 

There were stopped in a small town called Eads and had even managed to find a still standing motel, the Traveler's Lodge. 

There were plenty of beds for everyone and a good night's sleep after being trapped on the bus all day, was just what they needed.

They were surprised to find that several of the rooms still had running water, it was the exact opposite of warm, but at this point, a shower was a shower. 

A few of the guys had set up a bar-b-que in the parking lot, there was no real meat to be had, but a few tins of sausages would do the trick.

It was a fairly normal evening, the first one they had experienced in far too long and after a decent meal and an impromptu game of soccer, the kids showered and changed and settled in for the night. 

Jensen had put the boys down and waited for Misha to come back to the room before he went next door to shower. 

The water was fairly icy but he didn't care too much, it was just nice to feel clean again. 

He dried off quickly and pulled on a fresh change of clothes but he didn't go back to the room right away, instead, he sat down on the bed and took a few minutes to be on his own. 

He didn't get to his feet until he heard voices outside of the room and he walked over and opened the door. 

"Sorry Jensen, didn't know anyone was in here."

"It's okay Michael, I've finished up now."

He left the room and headed next door, he found Misha laying on the bed. When he called out his name, he didn't move. 

He walked around the side of the bed and saw that Misha was completely out of it. 

He leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, checked on the boys, and then left the room. 

He wanted to check on Jared and the others, he could hear voices down in the parking lot. 

A few people had called it a night and gone to bed and while he was tired, he was still a little too wired to sleep. 

He made his way down the stairs and joined the others around the old almost rotted through picnic table. 

"There he is," Chris called out. "Thought you would have gone to bed, you know, gone to 'bed'."

Jensen rolled his eyes and then punched Chris hard on the arm. 

"Jackass." Chris retorted as he rubbed at his arm. 

"Hey, don't be mad at me cos you can't get laid." Jensen replied with a smirk. 

"It's not for lack of trying," David added. "He's almost worn Erica down to the point of saying yes."

"You're all fucking hilarious." Chris shot back. 

The sound of crying echoed out across the parking lot and Jensen turned toward the rooms and sighed heavily. 

"Duty calls."

When he got back to the room, he saw Misha sitting on the end of the bed, Cole was curled up in his lap, he wasn't crying now but he was very much awake. 

"Sorry," Jensen told him. "I should have been up here."

Misha glanced up at him and shook his head. "No, it's okay."

"You want to take over?"

Misha shook his head. "He's stopped crying now, he should fall asleep soon. What could do though, check to see if there is any more of that orange juice powder, it's the only one he likes at the moment and we're almost out."

"Yeah, of course," Jensen replied. "I think they unpacked a couple of boxes from the U-Haul earlier, I'll see if there's any in there."

He went back downstairs and started looking through the boxes that had been placed against the wall, he found various food items but couldn't see any orange juice, the only thing he could find was strawberry and he hoped that it would be okay. 

************************

It was a few hours before dark when they finally arrived in Taos, while some of the roads had been a damn nightmare, there were sections that were easily passable and they arrived in the city at what Mark suggested was about five o'clock. 

After an earlier discussion with Neve, they had pinpointed a rough location for the possible survivors. 

The Kachina Lodge was a pretty big building and it took some searching before they found the section of the hotel where they were holed up. 

There were only seven people there and Jensen felt a new crushing defeat, they were too late, if only they had shown up earlier, then maybe they could have saved more people. 

They had clearly had a rough go of it, they were out of food, apparently having eaten last at least three days ago. 

There were a lot of restaurants and cafes in the area but any edible food had been consumed long ago. 

There was one man in the group who was clearly their leader and he explained that the northern part of the city wasn't in too bad a shape but the rest of it, well that had been hit pretty hard by a series of earthquakes the previous year. 

Misha, Jared, and Adrienne began handing out food and water while Aldis, the group leader, explained everything that had happened over the past few years. 

“You've really just been living here for three years?”Jeff asked. 

“At least that long,” he replied. “At the start, when all of this began, there were several hundred of us, people would then come and go until things became so bad that it... even a year ago, there were about 130 of us but the food quickly disappeared and they couldn't stay, it became more manageable with fewer people but the past few months have been bad, most of the city is unreachable, we've exhausted every option.”

“Jesus,” Jensen replied. “And here I thought that we had it bad.”

“Why did you stay?” Jared asked. “Once things became that bad, why didn't you try to find somewhere else?”

Aldis narrowed his eyes. “And gone where? Also, with you lot showing up here, can't be that many places left beside, the handful of times that we've thought about leaving in the past few months, we couldn't, too many damn dust storms rolling in.”

“Dust storms?”

“They're pretty fucking brutal, you can't be outside when they hit, you'd be dead in a matter of hours, maybe less and they last for days.”

Jensen glanced at the others as he sucked in a deep breath. He didn't really want to bring it up but he had to know. 

“You have any idea what's causing all of this.”

Aldis folded his arms over his chest and studied him for a moment, it quickly became clear that he knew what had happened. 

“Yeah, at first we didn't believe it,” Aldis explained. “Cos who in their right mind would but there have been several spotted now, not directly over this particular area but pretty damn fucking close.”

“It took a while for it to sink in, so you're not in alone there.” Jensen told him. 

“I gotta ask,” Aldis said. “Aside from Neve and Jacob, are they the only reason you're heading south?”

“Not exactly not,” Jeff replied. “We were planning on heading west but thought it best to avoid the San Andreas Fault.”

Jeff stared at him for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. 

“Just thought that maybe you'd heard the same rumors that we had.”

“Rumors about what?”

“About the safe haven in Central America,” Aldis explained. “Apparently somewhere in Guatemala, if you can believe that, has a safe place, somewhere that's been completely untouched by all this bullshit.”

Jensen narrowed his eyes and tried to process the thought of it. 

“Never heard of it,” Mark said. “How did you?”

“We had a group of people come through, would have been 10 or 11 months now, they had traveled from the east coast and were heading to Guatemala, I don't even remember how they had heard of this place but they were convinced that it was real and I mean seriously convinced.”

“I have no idea how they would have heard about such a place,” Jeff added. “Once the EMP hit, we had no communications, so unless it came from someone who had been there, but that makes no sense, why would you leave such a place?”

“I don't know what to tell you, man,” Aldis said. “They were convinced and no amount of pleading with them could change their minds.”

“So they what, we're gonna walk there?” Jensen asked. 

Aldis shrugged his shoulders. “I guess.”

Jensen glanced over at Jeff who looked just as skeptical as he felt. 

“For starters, that would take months, maybe even longer given the damage, secondly, what if it's worse than here, then you've wasted all of that time, and any resources that you're lucky enough to find.”

Aldis shrugged his shoulders again. “As I said, they were 100% convinced that this place exists, that it's some sort of... that it means something, to them I mean.”

Jensen scrunched up his nose. “To them?”

“Yeah,” Aldis replied. “Them, you know who I mean.”

“How could it possibly?”

“I think that I have an idea,” Mark said. “But...”

“But what?”

“Guatemala is known for certain historical sites,” Mark explained. “And given what we've been through over the past several years, I guess one could see why it would be a safe haven.”

Jensen cocked an eyebrow at him. “Seriously Mark, you don't think that's a little...”

“Fucking insane, a few years ago, yeah, I would have told you that it wasn't possible, but here we are.”

  
They had been at the motel for almost a week now, a few days earlier, a dust storm had rolled through and it was then that Jensen understood what Aldis had meant when he said they were bad. 

They had been trapped in their rooms for almost two days and were beyond relieved when they could leave again. 

When they could all finally gather together again, they began to make plans, it was agreed upon that they would attempt to make the trip south, it certainly wasn't going to be easy but they knew that they couldn't stay here, they had enough supplies for a few months but beyond that, they would need to find somewhere else, so why not try this supposed safe haven. 

They also made the decision to do a thorough search of the reachable parts of town, just in case they could muster up a few more supplies. 

Aldis hadn't been wrong about the damage that had been caused to the city, parts were completely unreachable, buildings had toppled and there had been some flooding at some point. 

After a thorough search and not finding much, they knew that it was finally time to prepare to leave. 

When all of the groups had returned, one, in particular, hadn't found supplies, but they had stumbled across something else. 

“We were practically underneath it, for a while too, before we even realized it,” Jared explained. “And this time, this was different.”

“What do you mean... how was it different?” Jeff asked. 

Jared seemed to swallow around the lump that had formed in his throat. “It was smaller, a lot smaller.”

“How much smaller?” Mark asked. 

Jared sucked in a sharp breath. “Well, we could uh... we could see the whole thing.”

“Jesus.” Jensen muttered under his breath. 

“We can't wait until the morning,” Mark said. “We need to leave now.”

“I agree,” Aldis added. “The uh... the last time one of them got that close, we couldn't leave the motel for three days, the smoke was... it was bad.”

“Okay,” Jeff said. “So, we leave now, before we don't get another chance.”

Jensen glanced over at Misha who looked terribly panicked and he couldn't blame him because he felt it too but he was desperately trying to keep his face from showing it. 


	4. Fight Like Thunder, Til My Body Breaks

**In the Isle of Shadow**

Chapter Four  
Fight Like Thunder, Til My Body Breaks

They managed to make it as far as Del Rio, Texas without too many incidents but the road that would take them across the border and into Mexico was badly damaged and they weren't sure if there was going to be enough room for the buses to pass through. 

They were stopped at what used to be the port of entry, there was significant damage to the surrounding buildings, nowhere really for them to stay until they could determine a passable route. 

To find another, that could take them days or even weeks and they had already been traveling for several weeks as it was, sometimes, it felt like they had left Taos only days ago but other times, it felt like months. 

A group went out to assess the damage and it might be a while before they returned. 

They were trying to keep the children occupied, they had been on the road since before the sun had even come up that morning and the kids were bored out of their minds. 

They didn't exactly have toys or games for them to play but they had packed a couple of soccer balls into the supplies, some of the older ones didn't care at all about that but it would keep the younger ones entertained. 

Jeff, Jared and Chris had gone with the group to check out the road, Jensen had noticed that Adrienne seemed to fight him on it, she wouldn't say why but she

wasn't exactly acting like herself and he wanted to talk to her but she had wandered off a little and was sitting by herself so he figured he would give it a little time. 

Jared stepped closer to the edge of the road, or at least what was left of the road, as he peered down, he felt a little unsteady, he remembered that the depth of the river was about 60 feet but there was currently very little water in it. 

“If we're lucky, the bus might make it, emphasis on might.” Jeff said as he walked over to Jared. 

“We're going to have to try,” Jared replied. “Otherwise it's going to take forever to find another passable route.”

Chris walked over to them and dropped a rock over the side. “The best thing to do would be to have everyone walk across and whoever wants to take the chance, can drive the buses.”

Jeff glanced over at him and then nodded. “I agree, also a lighter load will be easier to manoeuver.”

They returned to the group about an hour later and discussed the plan, Mark agreed that he would continue to drive, as would David. 

It was also decided that the majority of the group would walk across first followed by Mark who would be towing the U-Haul trailer, then another group including

Jeff, Chris, Jensen, and Jared would follow him with David bringing up the rear. 

It was extremely slow going, what used to be a fairly quick crossing took them more than half an hour, there were several moments of panic when the road became so narrow that Jensen could have sworn the bus was going to tip right over the edge but after some masterful maneuvering by Mark, they all made it across safely. 

What they found on the other side, were a bunch of destroyed buildings and a large scale fire that looked like it had already been burning for several days. 

They got back onto the buses and were careful to stick to the roads that were closest to the river but not long after, they had to turn back inland to get back onto the highway. 

There were rusted out cars scattered everywhere which made navigating a little tricky but the further away they got from the city, it became a little easier to move, there was a lot of open land and the roads were less damaged so they made up a lot of time. 

They had been on the road for a good portion of the day before they finally arrived in Monterrey, they were a little surprised at just how large the city was and just how much of it was still intact. 

They continued to drive right across the city until they reached an area called Jaurez where they found an old mall. 

It was clear that at one point it had been used as a refugee camp, there were still remnants of tents, old military trucks that were now shells of their former selves. 

Mark pulled the bus into the lot and David parked up beside him. 

Jeff was the first to get out and Jensen watched him from his seat in the back as he scanned the area. 

“Where do you think everyone went?” Adrienne asked no one in particular as she made her way toward the front. 

They made their way off the buses and stretched their legs a little. 

Jensen watched Misha as he walked across the parking lot, he seemed to be looking at something but Jensen couldn't tell what. 

He gave it a few minutes before he approached him. He stepped up beside him and reached out, taking his hand. 

“Is everything okay?”

Misha drew in a deep breath and then glanced over at him. “Honestly, I don't know..”

“What do you mean?” Jensen asked him. 

Misha shook his head. “I don't know exactly, it's just this place. Something about it doesn't feel right.”

Jensen glanced around the lot, aside from the lack of people, it was almost... normal. There was hardly any damage at all in this area of the city, in most of the city actually. 

“Why would there be something wrong?” Jensen replied. “Aside from the obvious.”

“I don't know,” he repeated. “But the moment I stepped off the bus, it all feels wrong, like we shouldn't be here, they don't want us here.”

Jensen cocked an eyebrow at him. “They don't want us here? There's a thing but not necessarily a they and even if there is, I'll be damned if that will stop me from where we need to go.”

“But I've felt this before.” Misha told him. 

Jensen glanced over at him again and gripped his hand tighter. “What do you mean?”

“I know that I should have said something earlier but at the time, even up until right now I suppose, it seemed kind of pointless,” Misha explained. “But not long before Cayden was... was destroyed, I just felt off, like something bad was going to happen.”

Jensen scrunched up his nose and looked more than skeptical. Misha didn't entirely blame him. 

“I know it sounds crazy but comes on Jen, it was almost like a sense of deja vu. I always feel worried, especially when it comes to the boys, It was a feeling that I couldn't shake and I feel like that again now.”

“Okay,” Jensen replied. “So, what do you want to do about it, if you really do have a feeling that something bad is going to happen, I don't really wanna stick around and find out what it is.”

Misha turned around to look at the group. “And I'm somehow supposed to convince everyone else that we should leave, just because I think we should.”

Jensen shrugged his shoulders. “Why not? We've done more for less.”

Misha shook his head. “I suppose but it doesn't mean that they should listen to me, I know how crazy it sounds.”

Jensen didn't say anything back, instead, he turned around he walked over to Jeff and Mark. 

“Something happened here,” Jensen told them. “Not a good something, I don't think we should stay here, neither does Misha.”

Jeff glanced over his shoulder and looked at Misha who was still standing at the edge of the parking lot. 

“Whatever happened here, I think it was bad and it happened not that long ago.” Jeff said. 

“What makes you say that?” Mark replied. 

“Because the table near one of the tents, still has a plate of food on it?” Jeff told them. “And it's only a few days old at the most.”

It hadn't taken much convincing on their behalf to leave and find somewhere else to rest up for a few days. 

Once they had chosen another location they loaded back onto the buses and headed out. 

The entire drive was done in silence, not one single person spoke a word until they had pulled into the parking lot of an old hotel near the airport in Tampico.

The building wasn't in the best shape but there was still plenty enough room for all of them to get some much-needed rest. 

It had been a long few days and everyone was too exhausted so after having a dinner that consisted mainly of crackers, tinned fruit, and slightly stale pop-tarts, they called it a night.

Jensen had already put the boys to bed and Misha couldn't help but laugh at the way he had piled up a bunch of pillows along the edge of the bed on Cole's side. 

“Did you have much trouble?” Misha asked. 

Jensen gave his head a shake. “No, they both went down without a fight, actually, they've both been really good the past week or so, guess it's all the traveling, they're too tired to complain.”

“I think that we've all reached that point,” Misha replied. “We've still got a few weeks to go before we even get there and at this rate, I'm a little worried that it's going to be too much for some people.”

Jensen's eyes widened as the floor began to shake and exhaling sharply, he moved toward the boys. 

Misha was on the other side of the bed, his hands on the mattress beside Wyatt, who was still asleep despite the shaking. 

Jensen lowered his head to the bed and sucked in a deep breath. 

The 'earthquake' lasted about two minutes and when it finally stopped, he felt like his nerves were on fire. 

They stayed where they were for another couple of minutes, just long enough to make sure that the boys were okay before he stood up again. 

“I uh... I'm going to check on Mom and Mackenzie.”

Misha nodded back at him. “Of course. Jen, you should check on Jared as well.”

This time Jensen nodded and then he disappeared out the door. 

Misha could hear voices outside, people who were now on edge after the earthquake and he squeezed his eyes shut and tried his best to shake it off. 

Jensen pushed open the door and stepped into the room. His mom was sitting on the edge of the bed, a bottle of water clutched tightly in her hands and Mac was sitting on the other bed, her knees pulled up to her chest. 

“Are you guys okay?”

Donna looked up at him and smiled sadly. “We're fine, a little on edge but we're okay.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Because if you're....”

“Jensen, you're doing it again,” Donna replied. “We're okay.”

“Sorry,” he told her. “But if that changes...”

“We know where to find you.”

“Alright then, I'm going to go and check on Jared.”

He made his way down the walkway toward Jared and Adrienne's room, the door was slightly ajar and he cautiously pushed it open. 

Jared was rifling through a duffle bag and Adrienne was in the bathroom, he could hear her throwing up and he scrunched up his nose. 

“Hey.”

Jared looked up from the bag. “Hey.”

Jensen motioned toward the bathroom door. “Is she alright?”

Jared looked toward the door and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess so, she's been feeling a little off for a couple of days now, she thinks it was the candy bars we found in Taos.”

Jensen narrowed his eyes at him. “What? No one else got sick did they?”

Jared exhaled sharply. “Not that I know of, but at the time she said it tasted funny.”

Jensen gave his head a shake. “But she ate it anyway?”

Jared chuckled as he glanced toward the door. 

“You know that I can hear you two assholes.” Adrienne called out. 

“Yeah, I know.”

Jared pulled a hoodie from the bag and laid it out on the bed before he moved the bag to the chair. 

“Are you guys okay after that earthquake?” Jensen finally asked him. 

“We are,” Jared replied. “It kinda fucking sucks that we're getting used to them, the smaller ones at least, that one wasn't too bad.”

“Yeah I guess,” he said. “It definitely wasn't the worst one we've been through but I have to say, I'm...”

Jared turned to face him and folded his arms over his chest. “You're what?”

“At what point does it become too much?”

“I think we reached that point a long time ago,” Jared told him. “I've been feeling that way on and off for years now.”

“Yeah, but we had a few good years there in Cayden,” Jensen replied. “There really was a good chunk of time where I didn't worry about it, that somehow the earthquakes and storms that happened while we were there, were just normal natural, events. Like it was before but ever since we left, my tolerance, my patience for all of this, it doesn't exist anymore.”

The bathroom door swung open and Adrienne walked out, she was carrying a towel which she draped over her shoulder. 

“If this safe haven truly does exist,” she said. “Then we're only a few weeks away from having that normalcy back.”

“Sure,” Jensen replied. “But, what if it turns out that this place, is just like all the rest of them.”

“Then we keep doing what we've been doing,” she told him. “We all have that feeling Jen, where it becomes too much and the thought of having to keep fighting, is it really worth it, and you know what, yes, it will always be worth fighting for it, no matter how defeated you feel.”

Jensen lifted his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes. “I'm just so tired of it all, I mean what the hell are they doing? They know that we're here and they don't clearly don't care about killing us but they're not actively seeking us out, so what's the point of it all, what the hell are they doing?”

Jared shared a concerned, frightened look with Adrienne, of course, they had given it thought over the years but to truly try and process it, to conclude the most likely outcome, it terrified them. 

“I guess,” Adrienne said. “You're not completely wrong but until they do something different, we can't.”

“I know that we're still a few weeks out,” Jensen replied. “But I think we should consider the possibility of traveling straight through, no more stops.”

“Good idea in theory,” Jared told him. “But we do have to stop occasionally, the batteries won't stay charged for that long.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jensen sighed heavily. “I still think that we should... we need to find some new batteries, we've only got the four right?”

Jared nodded back at him. 

“Okay,” Jensen said. “So, we need to find more, rig the panels on the roof with more batteries so that way...”

“We would only have to stop to change them,” Adrienne added. “But do you really want to stay on those damn buses for that long, it will drive everyone crazy.”

“Probably,” Jensen replied. “But if we can do that, the trip should be shorter, less time to lose our minds.”

Jared exhaled sharply and then nodded back at him. “Yeah, I don't completely hate the sound of that though, first thing tomorrow, we'll start searching.”

Jensen nodded this time and he began to feel a little better, they had a plan, whether it would work or not was beside the point, he felt a lighter almost and with a small smile, he left their room and headed back to his. 

************************

“They're more than happy to stay with the kids,” Jensen told him as they headed toward the road. “I actually think Mac wanted to come with us, but Mom gave her this look and she changed her mind pretty quickly.”

Misha gave his head a slight shake. “I'm not surprised, but I am a little surprised that she didn't say anything about you going.”

Jensen glanced at him and narrowed his eyes. “Why would she do that?”

Misha stared back at him. “Really?”

“Yeah really.”Jensen retorted. 

“She's worried about you, we all are.”

“Well, you don't need to be, at least no more worried about me than anyone else.”

“Yeah, that's not going to happen,” Misha replied. “Of course I care about the others but with you...”

Jensen lowered his gaze. “Yeah, I know.”

It took almost the whole day but when they returned to the motel, it had turned out that they had found 14 batteries but now they had to be tested and Jeff made it clear that more than half, or more than that, were going to end up being useless. 

Jensen figured he just wanted to prepare everyone in case none of them worked. 

He was watching Mac and Megan play with the boys and then his attention turned toward Jared who was standing away from the rest of the group, he looked troubled and Jensen sighed heavily as he got to his feet and walked over to him.   
“If that look on your face has anything to do with my weird freakout last night, I'm sorry.”

Jared glanced over at him and then shook his head. “What? Oh no, it's not that, it's just that Adrienne is...”

“She's still sick huh?”

“Yeah,” Jared replied. “But now she's being kind of a bitch, said a couple of things that, well, not really things that she would usually say and then she kicked me out of the room and locked the door, now she won't let me back in.”

“I'm sure she'll be fine,” Jensen tried to reassure him. “Maybe she's just overwhelmed, being sick and all this earthquake bullshit.”

Jared folded his arms over his chest and stared back at him. “Yeah, I don't know, maybe.”

Jensen reached out and placed his hand on Jared's shoulder. “It'll be okay, you'll both be okay.”

Jensen started to become a little worried when, for the fourth time, he saw Jeff stomping about, he was muttering under his breath. 

He watched as Mark approached him, they spoke for a few minutes and then Jeff went back to work. 

It was another few hours before he emerged again, this time he didn't look as angry but he wasn't exactly overjoyed either. 

“So,” Jared asked he approached him. “How did it go?”

“We've got six new batteries,” Jeff explained. “It's not as good as I was hoping for but...”

“But,” Mark said. “It means that we can essentially drive straight through?”

Jeff nodded back at him. “Yeah, it does. So, whenever everyone is ready to go...”

************************

Four days had passed since they left the hotel and it had been four days since they had been off the bus for more than 20 minutes at a time. 

They had made good time, but after being trapped on the buses for so long, everyone was starting to become a little agitated and the children were beginning to suffer from a little cabin fever. 

Jensen was sitting in the back with the boys, Cole was asleep but Wyatt was clearly annoyed with not being able to run around and play and no amount of explaining would calm him down. 

A few minutes later, Mac moved to the back of the bus, she was carrying a couple of books and tapped Jensen on the shoulder. 

“Why don't you take a break, I'll read to him for a bit,” she told him. “Besides, he's not the only one who's a little...” she turned around and looked at Jared who was sitting on his own, cramped into the seat. “Maybe you could talk to him.”

Jensen nodded back and stood up, letting Mac sit down beside Wyatt. 

Jared opened one eye when he heard Jensen say his name and he sighed heavily as he shifted in the seat to give Jensen room to sit down. 

“You doing okay?” Jensen asked. 

Jared shrugged his shoulders as he lifted his hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn. 

“Things still not great with Adrienne?” He asked. 

Jared exhaled sharply. “She still won't even talk to me and I have no idea why it's kind of bumming me out.”

“She really hasn't said anything at all about what's going on?”

Jared cautiously glanced over the seat to where Adrienne was sitting with Megan, about halfway down the bus.

“Not really,” he replied. “Just that she's sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time.”

Jensen raised a brow at him. “What?”

Jared shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah I know, so I'm just gonna let her do her thing.”

“Okay, even if it's making you miserable? Have you tried talking to her again?”

“A couple of times but she clearly doesn't want to talk.”

Jensen felt bad for him, he knew that Jared was miserable and was feeling even worse now that he was on the outs with Adrienne, he hated seeing any of them like this but given the circumstances, he was a little surprised that they weren't all sitting in a corner somewhere, eating their own hair. 

Jensen chuckled to himself at the thought and then he felt bad for laughing but he couldn't help himself. 

Jared glanced up at him, an annoyed look in his eyes but as he watched Jensen laughing, he began to laugh as well. 

A few minutes later, they finally calmed down and Jensen actually felt a little better, not much but a little.

“Okay,” Jensen said after a moment. “I'm gonna go check on Misha.”

Jared nodded back at him. 

They traveled for another two hours before they finally stopped again to change out the batteries and to stretch their legs. 

The kids were extremely happy to be running around and the adults were possibly even happier. 

Jensen and Misha were watching the boys play in the grass and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jared walk over to Adrienne and he held his breath for a moment. 

They were close enough to hear what they were saying but he tried not to listen to their conversation. 

“Can we talk.”

Adrienne folded her arms over her chest and turned toward him. “Yeah, we need to.”

Jared nodded back at her and smiled half-heartedly. “Okay, that's good. Ads, what's going on with you, why have you been...”

“Such a bitch?” she finished for him. “I know I have been and I'm sorry for that but I've been dealing with a lot.”

Jared stared back at her. “Okay, sorry but I'm a little confused here, I get that you're stressed and overwhelmed but we've all been dealing with a lot.”

“Fair point,” she replied. “But there are other things besides the damn earthquakes and whatnot that people have on their minds.”

“I get that,” he answered. “But what is it that you're thinking about, that you can't talk to me about?”

Adrienne went quiet for a moment and Jensen could see the defeated look on Jared's face. 

“Adrienne, please talk to me.”

After a moment she looked up at him, her arms still folded across her chest. “The reason that I've been so difficult lately is that I've been thinking about the fact that this is actually happening and it was never in my wildest dreams how I thought it would be. I've been going back and forth between terrified and happy and it changes at any given moment.”

“Ads, what the hell are you talking about?”

She took a tentative step toward him. “Jared, I'm pregnant.”

Jensen turned to look at Misha who was grinning from ear to ear, he could feel his own smile but when he looked at Jared again, he could see the slightly petrified look on his face and he had to suppress the laugh that threatened to escape. 

Misha reached out and took Jensen's hand. “They're going to be okay.”

Jensen nodded back at him with a smile. “Yeah, they will be.”

Five days later, they finally reached the border that would take them into Guatemala. 

They were in a small town called El Ceibo, it was basically just a few buildings standing on either side of the main road. 

Jeff, Jared, Christian, and David were going over the maps, they needed to take the PET13 until they reached San Benito, then they would need to get onto the CA13 which would take them to El Zapote and from there, there was a small settlement that contained the only road that would take them to the lakes. 

They had decided to stop for a few hours, it had been three days since they had had a proper break from the buses and they were all desperate for a real rest and a proper meal that didn't consist of vending machine food. 

A fire had been built and a proper meal was being prepared. 

It was almost dark and it was a beautiful, clear night. There was a very slight chill in the air but it wasn't too bad, at least not at the moment. 

“You notice how there doesn't seem to be a lot of destruction here?” Jared asked as he stepped up beside Jensen. 

Jensen replaced the lid of his water bottle and turned to face him. “Yeah, I did notice, it's a lot greener here, I'm hoping that's a good sign.”

“The boys seem happier.” Jared said. 

Jensen glanced up at him and smiled. “They do, they are.”

He continued to smile and Jared scrunched up his nose. “Why are you doing that?”

“I heard your conversation with Adrienne the other day.” Jensen told him. 

“Yeah, I figured you had,” Jared replied. “I would have said something but we agreed to wait just a little bit longer.”

“I get that, so things are better between the two of you now?”

Jared smiled this time. “They are, it sucked there for a few days but I get why she was so stressed out.”

Jensen patted him on the back. “It's only gonna get worse, the stress, the worry.”

Jared shook his head. “Thanks, that helps.”

“But you're gonna be great Jared,” Jensen told him. “I mean that you're going to be a great father, I've seen the way you are with my boys, they love you so just imagine what it's gonna be like with your own kid.”

Jared folded his arms over his chest and smiled softly. “Thanks, that actually does help.”

For the first time in a long time, there were actual smiles and laughter amongst the group as they enjoyed their meal, the fresh air and being of the damn bus. 

Even as it got later, the temperature didn't really change and after a brief discussion, it was agreed that they would camp out for the night and make up for it tomorrow by not stopping for anything. 

About half the group were already asleep but Jensen, despite his tiredness, wasn't ready to go to sleep, he was still enjoying the most normal evening they had had in weeks. 

He glanced across the fire and saw his mother and sister were still awake, they were playing cards, something they had been doing a lot of lately and he smiled to himself. 

Jensen felt a hand on his hand and jumped ever so slightly. 

“Jen, please try and get some sleep.”

He glanced down to where Misha was lying beside him, his eyes were closed. 

“I know,” Jensen replied. “I will, I'm just enjoying the moment.”

“Okay, just make sure you also enjoy getting some sleep.”

Jensen gave his head a shake and watched Misha until he fell asleep a few minutes later. 

He wasn't sure when he fell asleep but when he woke up, the happy moment he had felt earlier, quickly disappeared as he watched the sky light up. 

He wasn't entirely sure how far away it was but it was close enough that he could see the colors, he focused on them for a few minutes before his attention turned to the rest of the group. 

They were just as intrigued and disturbed by the lights as he was. 

They weren't like the ones they had seen before, these were different, while before they seemed a little erratic, these ones were much more purposeful and the frightened him to his core. 

He glanced at Misha who was staring up at the sky. 

“What the hell is going on?”

Jensen gave his head a shake. “I have no idea, I also have no fucking clue what we should do, do we leave, right now?”

They looked over when Jeff, Mark, and David got to their feet. 

“We leave, right now,” Jeff announced. “Why not.”

There wasn't a lot of camp to pack up so they were ready to go fairly quickly. 

Even though it was incredibly dark, they could see out of the windows and they were all amazed at the scenery surrounding them.

It was a beautiful sight and as they got closer to the village, they found the road that would take them to the lakes. 

They stopped, only briefly so that they could check out the village to see if anyone was there and after finding nothing, they kept moving. 

The drive to the lakes only took about 15 minutes and once they arrived, they were stunned to find several buildings, all brightly illuminated with lanterns and it looked amazing. 

As they slowly began to disembark, they were even more shocked when people began to appear from the buildings. 

“My God,” Aldis said. “They were right about this place, I just assumed that it was wishful thinking.”

Jensen reached over and patted him on the back. “In case I haven't said it before, I am damn glad that we found each other.”

Aldis smiled back at him. “You and me both, man. You and me both.”

It quickly became clear that there were a significant amount of survivors and they happily greeted them, ushering them into the lodge. 

Not long after their arrival, a young woman named Yadira greeted them. It turned out that she was th de-facto leader of this group and she had helped a lot of people make it here but what was the most surprsing about her, was that she was the one who had told Aldis about this place. 

He pulled her into a hug. “I can't believe that you're here, that you were right about this place.”

“When we told you about this place,” she explained. “I wanted more than anything for it to be real, getting here, it wasn't easy, as you know, but when we did... we're safe now and so are you.”

“This is incredible,” Jensen said as he stepped up beside them. “You have no idea how amazing it feels to be here.”

She smiled back at him. “I have an idea. So, how many survivors do we have?”

“Less than 50 unfortunately.”

"Any number is a good number," she replied. "Currently we have 112 and now with you being here, it gives me hope that more people might show up."

“Can I ask how long it's been since the last group arrived?” Christian asked as he joined them. 

“Roughly three weeks ago,” she explained. “There was a group of 18 people who turned up, in pretty bad shape actually but now, they're doing well. Now, I'm sure that you would like to settle in and get some rest. I'll show you where you'll be set up.”

At the end of the short road was a surprisingly large hotel that looked to be in excellent condition. 

“How many rooms are there?”

“There are 75 rooms,” she explained. “So far, 39 are occupied which means that you'll have 36 rooms, that also means that some of you will have to double up, but

I'm assuming that's already the case. About half of the rooms only have a double bed but they are the ones with a pull out sofa, the rooms that have two beds, perhaps the ones of you with children would like those?”

“Yes.” Jensen said, eliciting a round of laughter from the others. 

“Okay,” Yadira said after speaking to the man who was standing beside her, he had handed her a clipboard which she then held out to Jensen. “Take this with you, it will tell you what rooms are available, as you decide, write your names in so we can keep track.”

“Thank you,” Jeff told her. “We really appreciate this.”

“Of course,” she replied with a smile. “Now, when you're ready, just make your way back down to the lodge, there will be a hot meal waiting for you.”

It took about two hours for the entire group to be assigned rooms, to shower and change before they were ready to head down to the lodge. 

They decided to walk back down, the hotel was only about an eight-minute walk and it was nice to be out in the fresh air, freshly showered in clean clothes. 

Jensen was in the middle of the group, walking beside Jared who hadn't looked this upbeat in a very long time. 

“How are you doing?”

Jared looked over at him and smiled. “From the moment we heard about this place, I wanted it to be real so badly, and then when Adrienne told me about the baby,

I needed this place to be real and it was also then that I truly understood that worry that you have. When we stepped off that bus...”

Jensen smiled back at him. “I have no idea what's going to happen but being here, it's a different feeling than the one I had when we found Cayden, we're going to be okay here Jared, your kid is going to be okay here.”

It took a few days for them truly begin to settle in, their sleeping patterns had been messed up from all the traveling and after getting some proper rest, they began to feel a little more normal. 

Jensen, Jared, and Christian had made arrangements to meet up with Yadira in the hopes of finding out a little more about this place. 

They met up at the lodge and she led the way down to the water, there was a pier that stuck out over the lake. 

“So,” she said. “I hope that you're all feeling a little better.”

“We are,” Jared replied. “It will take some getting used to, the feeling of safety.”

“I know what you mean,” she answered. “When we first arrived it took a good few weeks to believe that it was all real. There were so many moments when I thought that it was a dream and I'd wake up and I would actually be stuck out there somewhere.”

“How did you find out about this place?” Christian wanted to know. “Aldis explained that you were the one who told him about it, who told you?”

“My people were in what was left of the FEMA camp in Salt Lake City,” she told them. “There was a group of soldiers who were doing their best to help us, they had heard about reports that had come in from Guatemala, that good portions of the country weren't being affected and that it was safe there. They didn't have exact locations so we weren't really sure if the rumors were true or if it was just hopeful thinking.”

“So, you just took the chance?”

She gave her shoulders a shrug. “Why not, the camp was days away from falling apart and what did we have to lose? We had to go somewhere.”

“Do you have any idea why this place was left untouched?” Jensen asked. 

“There are some theory's but again, we don't have actual proof of it.”

Jensen narrowed his eyes at her. “What does that mean?”

“We're on the easternmost edge of the lakes,” she explained. “The western lake, there's an island in the middle of it and there are... ruins, again it's just a theory but we suspect that the reason they have left this area alone, is because of those ruins.”

Jensen couldn't help but scoff at that, even with everything that had happened, everything that they had seen with their own eyes, it still seemed, well, ridiculous. 

“Your response is not unwarranted,” Yadira replied. “I still feel that way myself. But, the fact is, this place is safe. We've worked out that if you go about 3/4 of a mile in any direction away from the lakes, then you're at risk of getting caught in the destruction, but you stay here and...”

“And we get to be normal.”

_**Six months later:** _

Jared's eyes widened in panic as Adrienne thrashed around on the bed, a pained scream escaping her lips. 

“She's going to be okay,” Lisa assured him. “I promise you.”

Jared let out a deep breath but he wasn't still wasn't entirely convinced. 

She had already been in labor for about four hours and when Adrienne announced that she felt the need to push, they knew that their child was just moments away. 

Jared moved to the bedside and held Adrienne's hand as their child came into the world. 

Their daughter arrived at approximately midday and after briefly holding her, Jared was desperate to let everyone know the good news. 

He found his family and others in the other room, they had been waiting there for hours and when Jared walked in, a huge smile on his face, Jensen was the first one to embrace him. 

“It's a girl,” Jared told them, his smile growing in size. “I have a daughter, her name is Kara.”

After a hearty round of congratulations, he took his Jensen, his parents, and sister in to meet her. 

Megan walked over to the bed and leaned down to see the baby. “She's incredible Ads.”

Jared stood at the end of the bed with Jensen and he slipped his arm across his shoulders. 

“You're a dad,” Jensen said. “It's crazy. I remember the day that she told you that she was pregnant, that look on your face, it's moments like that that I miss cameras.”

“I remember it clearly,” Jared replied. “And yeah, that's something that we've talked about, not having any cameras, not having those pictures there for her to see when she's older.”

“I know what you mean,” Jensen told him. “I try not to think about it too much, what I do instead, is write everything down, the worst of it all and the best of it all, it's not the same as having the pictures to look at but she'll get to read about her life and that's the best we can do.”

“Write it down,” Jared repeated. “Yeah, I like that and who knows, hopefully being here, in this place, when she reads it, it will be a story to her and not a memory.”

Five Years Later:

Jensen lifted his head when he heard talking and laughing. 

A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth as they broke through the tree line. 

A moment later, the three little ones began running toward him, their giggling and shouting becoming louder by the second. 

He then saw Misha, Jared, and Adrienne as they walked at a brisk pace to keep up with the kids. 

“Dad.”

The kids barreled toward him, and he had to reach out to stop Cole from sprinting full force into the lake. 

“Hold on there kiddo,” Jensen told him. “You can't go in the water yet.”

“Yeah Cole, you can't even swim.” Wyatt told his brother. 

“Can so.” Cole retorted. 

“No need for that Wyatt,” Jensen told him. “No one is going swimming, it's still too cold.”

Wyatt spun around to where Kara was standing, her arms were folded across her chest and Jensen couldn't help but laugh. 

As Jared and Adrienne finally reached the shore, Jensen cocked an eyebrow at Adrienne.

“What is that for?” She asked him. 

“That kid is so scarily like you that it's... well scary.”Jensen said with a chuckle. 

Jared looked over at his daughter and smiled. “Yeah, I keep trying to tell her that not only does she look like Ads but they have the same personality.”

Adrienne scoffed back at him. “No she doesn't, her personality, that's all you.”

Jared folded his arms over his chest and stared back at her, causing Jensen to laugh again. 

“Okay,” Jared said. “Can we move on please.”

“Sure,” Jensen replied. “Good news, whatever the issue was with the fish a few weeks ago, seems to have fixed itself.”

“That's good.”

“Dad!”

Jared turned towards his daughter. “Yes?”

“I'm bored.”

“Seriously?”

“It's okay,” Adrienne said. “I'll take her back.”

“We can all go, I'm done here.” Jensen announced. 

They made their way back to the village, even after almost five years, it was still a work in progress, they were constantly making improvements and had turned the former four-building site into something much greater. The hotel had been turned into apartments and they had built multiple new houses, nothing too fancy but a little closer to what they had before. 

As they approached the village square, Jensen reached the gate first and pulled it open allowing the others to go through before closing it again. 

They could hear voices, talking and laughing and Jensen smiled to himself. 

He noticed a small group who were working on the renovations to one of the earlier buildings they had constructed here, he nodded slightly at Christian who was hauling a load of timber over. 

“You guys doing alright, need any help?” He called out. 

Christian gave his head a shake. “Not at the moment, we're good. “Not much left to do for now.”

Jensen waved at him as he caught up with the others. 

He found them on the small playground, the kids were laughing and shouting but at least Kara no longer looked bored. 

Jensen sat down on the picnic table across from Jared, Misha and Adrienne were over with the kids. 

“You given any more thought yet to that supply run?” Jensen asked him. 

Jared gave his shoulders a shrug. “Yeah, I've thought about it, but I don't know man, isn't it too much of a risk?”

“I don't know, we're doing okay I guess but there are a lot of materials that we just don't have here.”

“I know, where exactly do you plan to go?”

“Jeff thinks that the best chance to find the right supplies will be to go south, down to Villa Nueva.”

Jared contemplated it for a moment. “It's something that we can't avoid, isn't it?”

Jensen drew in a deep breath and then nodded. “Unfortunately but if it's done right, then we won't have to do it again for a while.”

“I can understand that I assume that you've signed up for this trip?”

“Yes and no,” Jensen replied... “That part of me that can't help myself from jumping in and trying to solve the problem but at the same time, we're safe and comfortable here and leaving, even temporarily, I don't know if I can do it.”

“Well, there are a lot of completely capable people here, neither of us has to go.”

“No, we don't.”

************************

Jensen, Jared, and Misha were making their way toward the island, over the past few years, they had been to the island but they had never ventured past the tree line. 

There was no particular reason for not exploring the island, it was more of a 'we'll check it out later' situation. 

The small boat they were in finally reached the shore and Jensen got out first, Jared exited last and pulled the boat further up the rocks. 

“I know it's not exactly why we're here but I wanna check it out a little.” Jensen announced. 

“Yeah,” Jared added. “I'm kind of curious as well.”

The three of them moved toward the trees, it wasn't as overgrown as they thought it would be, in fact, it looked almost as if someone had been maintaining it. 

Jensen glanced over at Misha who shared the same confused look. 

As they moved further inland, they noticed a series of stone steps and Jensen picked up his pace, again, they looked as though they had been maintained, there was no overgrowth and a sudden pit of dread filled his stomach. 

Jared gave his head a shake and moved past them, climbing up the steps. 

He quickly disappeared out of sight as he ran ahead and Jensen sucked in a sharp breath as he began to jog to catch up to him. 

“Guys,” Jared called out. “You guys, there's something that you need to see.”

Jensen looked over at Misha again, his eyes widened in panic and they started to run.

They quickly found Jared because he had stopped in his tracks and Jensen almost barreled into him. 

“Dude, what the fuck?”

Jared didn't say anything so Jensen slapped him on the shoulder. 

“Sorry,” Jared replied. “What did you say?”

“I said, what the fuck?”

Jared lifted his arm and pointed at something in front of them. 

Jensen swallowed around the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat and he very slowly turned around. 

What he saw was probably the last thing he had been expecting and his eyes widened in surprise. 

“What the hell?” he said. “What am I looking at?”

He felt Misha moved up beside him and take his hand, he quickly glanced at him. 

“Ruins.” Misha said. “I knew that there were a lot of ruins in this area but not quite like this, this is...”

“Different somehow.” Jensen finished for him. 

The three of them stood there for a few minutes until Jensen took a step forward, letting go of Misha's hand. 

“Maybe we shouldn't,” Misha said. “I can't help but think that maybe there's a reason why it's taken us so long to check this out.”

Jensen glanced over his shoulder toward Misha. He knew that he was most likely right but he couldn't help himself, he needed to see it close up. 

As he approached the structure, he reached out and placed his hand against the stone. 

Despite the sun beating down on them and the lack of a breeze, the stone felt cold, icy even. 

“Jensen, please be careful.”

Jensen glanced over his shoulder again. “It's okay.”

Misha and Jared both stepped toward him, ready to pull him away if he did anything foolish. 

“This is so fucking weird,” Jensen called out. “It's almost like the stone is made of ice.”

“Jensen, maybe you shouldn't touch it.”

Jensen took a step back and turned towards them. 

He was barely able to take another step when they all felt it, the ground beneath them began to shake and while internally, the panic was building up, this didn't feel like an earthquake, this felt like something different. 

Jensen glanced at Jared who looked absolutely petrified and he wanted to say something reassuring but the next thing he knew, an intense light, so pale blue that it was almost whitewashed over them and he could feel himself falling. 

He tried to call out but no words came and the last thing he remembered before he hit the ground, was watching two of the most important people in his life, suffer the same fate as him. 

  
When he opened his eyes, he felt a sharp pain in his side and he reached down, pressing his fingers against his stomach. 

He winced at the pain and grunted out a sharp breath. 

It took him a few minutes to regain his bearings and it was then that he realized he was wet and his eyes widened in surprise as he pulled himself into a sitting position. 

As he glanced up at the sky, he saw and could obviously feel the rain falling down on him, it also registered that it was dark out. 

He scanned the area for the others and finally saw them, each one was a few feet away and he half crawled, half walked toward Misha first.

“Misha.”

He heard a slight groaning noise and Jensen let out a deep breath of relief. 

“Can you move?” He asked. 

“Yeah, I think so.”

Jensen strained to see through the darkness but when he saw Misha getting up, he focused his attention on Jared, and from what he could tell, he hadn't moved yet. 

“Jared, can you hear me, can you get up?”

The pain in his side flared up but he tried to push it away as he moved toward Jared. 

When he reached him, he grabbed his shoulder and gave him a slight shake. 

“Jare, please, can you hear me?”

Jensen almost fell backward when Jared sat bolt upright. 

“What the fuck happened?” He cried out as he rubbed at a spot on his arm. 

Jensen shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea, but we need to get back to the village.”

After helping Jared to his feet, he turned around to face Misha who was clutching at the hem of his shirt. 

“Jensen, I don't... something's wrong.”

Jensen swallowed hard around the lump in his throat as he moved toward him. “You're scaring me, what's wrong?”

Misha pulled at his shirt. “Jensen, this isn't right, this isn't right.”

“You need to talk to me,” Jensen said as he reached out and placed his hands on Misha's shoulders. “What isn't right?”

“My clothes,” Misha told him. “This isn't what I was wearing.”

Jensen narrowed his eyes at him and gave his head a shake before he glanced down at his own clothes. 

He lifted a hand to his face and wiped the rainwater from his eyes. 

“Oh my god,” Jared cried out. “This can't be possible, none of this should be possible.”

Jensen moved toward him and grabbed his arm, spinning him around. 

“No!” Jared cried out again. “This isn't real.”

“Jared, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Jared pointed at the sky and Jensen and Misha both looked up, in the darkness, in the skies above them were bright blue lights. 

Jensen brought his hand to his mouth as a wave of nausea hit him and he locked eyes with Misha. 

"No, no no," Jensen said. "We can't be here, we're not here, we're on the island so...."

"So, what?" Jared replied. "How the fuck do you explain it then, because the three of us aren't suddenly sharing a hallucination.."

Jensen stared at him with wide eyes. "I don't know. I can't explain it."

"This isn't helping," Misha said as he stepped closer to Jensen. "We need to figure out..."

"How do you suggest we figure out how in the hell we're here, in a place that we haven't been to in five years, looking like we did five years ago, wearing the same damn clothes as five years ago but all three of us knowing what happened here."

"Oh my god," Misha cried out. "If this is real, and not some shared hallucination, if we are actually here..."

Jared locked eyes with Jensen but neither of them said anything, they didn't need too.

Jensen took a few steps forward, reaching out, he placed his hand against the stone wall, of Cayden. 

"We can save them all."

  
_**Five Years Later:** _

“Dad, Dad, I need help.”

Jared turned around and smiled as he watched his daughter struggling to get the worm onto the hook. 

“Be careful Kara, don't stab yourself.” Jared told her. 

“This is gross, why do we have to use worms?”

Jared let out a chuckle as she dropped the worm onto the rocks. 

“It's okay, I've got it.”

Jared watched as his father picked up the worm and placed it onto the hook and then he helped her drop the line into the water. 

“How's it going, caught anything yet?”

Jared turned around as Jeff and Megan approached, they each had a fishing line and were carrying buckets. 

“Not yet but it's still early.” Gerry replied. 

Their attention was drawn to the lake where a small boat sat. 

A string of laughter echoed across the water and Jared couldn't help but join in as he watched his best friend topple over the side. 

“He's lived beside a damn lake for almost five years now, and he still can't figure out how a boat works.”

Jared glanced over to where Christian and Misha were standing on the rocks, huge grins on their faces. 

“Well, he can't be awesome at everything.” Jared replied with a chuckle. 

“I heard that you fucking asshole.” Jensen called out from the water. 

“He said bad words.” Wyatt called out. 

“Watch your language Jensen, there are children present.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

After spending a few hours at the lake, the group gathered up their belongings and the seven fish they had caught and headed back to the village. 

As they got closer to the gates Jared suddenly stopped and Jensen almost knocked into him. 

“Dude, you need to quit doing that.” Jensen told him. 

Jared was staring off into the distance and Jensen waved a hand in front of his face. 

“What is wrong with you?”

Jared quickly glanced at Jensen and then pointed at something in the sky. 

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment before he glanced up. 

Even in the light of day, they could clearly see the orange lights in the distance, just beyond the perimeter that protected the lakes. 

Jensen sucked in a sharp breath. “Fuck, not this again.”

  



End file.
